The Complete Works of William Shakespeare/The Complete Works of William Shakespeare.iso/shakespr/timon.txt

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    TIMON OF ATHENS



    DRAMATIS PERSONAE


TIMON    of Athens.


LUCIUS    |
    |
LUCULLUS    |  flattering lords.
    |
SEMPRONIUS    |


VENTIDIUS    one of Timon's false friends.

ALCIBIADES    an Athenian captain.

APEMANTUS    a churlish philosopher.

FLAVIUS    steward to Timon.

    Poet, Painter, Jeweller, and Merchant. (Poet:)
    (Painter:)
    (Jeweller:)
    (Merchant:)

    An old Athenian. (Old Athenian:)


FLAMINIUS    |
    |
LUCILIUS    |  servants to Timon.
    |
SERVILIUS    |


CAPHIS    |
    |
PHILOTUS    |
    |
TITUS    |
    |  servants to Timon's creditors.
LUCIUS    |
    |
HORTENSIUS    |
    |
And others    |


    A Page. (Page:)

    A Fool. (Fool:)

    Three Strangers.
    (First Stranger:)
    (Second Stranger:)
    (Third Stranger:)


PHRYNIA    |
    |  mistresses to Alcibiades.
TIMANDRA    |


    Cupid and Amazons in the mask. (Cupid:)

    Other Lords, Senators, Officers, Soldiers,
    Banditti, and Attendants.
    (First Lord:)
    (Second Lord:)
    (Third Lord:)
    (Fourth Lord:)
    (Senator:)
    (First Senator:)
    (Second Senator:)
    (Third Senator:)
    (Soldier:)
    (First Bandit:)
    (Second Bandit:)
    (Third Bandit:)
    (Messenger:)
    (Servant:)
    (First Servant:)
    (Second Servant:)
    (Third Servant:)
    (Varro's First Servant:)
    (Varro's Second Servant:)
    (Lucilius' Servant:)


SCENE    Athens, and the neighbouring woods.

    TIMON OF ATHENS


ACT I



SCENE I    Athens. A hall in Timon's house.


    [Enter Poet, Painter, Jeweller, Merchant, and
    others, at several doors]

Poet    Good day, sir.

Painter                      I am glad you're well.

Poet    I have not seen you long: how goes the world?

Painter    It wears, sir, as it grows.

Poet    Ay, that's well known:
    But what particular rarity? what strange,
    Which manifold record not matches? See,
    Magic of bounty! all these spirits thy power
    Hath conjured to attend. I know the merchant.

Painter    I know them both; th' other's a jeweller.

Merchant    O, 'tis a worthy lord.

Jeweller    Nay, that's most fix'd.

Merchant    A most incomparable man, breathed, as it were,
    To an untirable and continuate goodness:
    He passes.

Jeweller:    I have a jewel here--

Merchant    O, pray, let's see't: for the Lord Timon, sir?

Jeweller:    If he will touch the estimate: but, for that--

Poet    [Reciting to himself]  'When we for recompense have
    praised the vile,
    It stains the glory in that happy verse
    Which aptly sings the good.'

Merchant    'Tis a good form.

    [Looking at the jewel]

Jeweller    And rich: here is a water, look ye.

Painter    You are rapt, sir, in some work, some dedication
    To the great lord.

Poet                      A thing slipp'd idly from me.
    Our poesy is as a gum, which oozes
    From whence 'tis nourish'd: the fire i' the flint
    Shows not till it be struck; our gentle flame
    Provokes itself and like the current flies
    Each bound it chafes. What have you there?

Painter    A picture, sir. When comes your book forth?

Poet    Upon the heels of my presentment, sir.
    Let's see your piece.

Painter    'Tis a good piece.

Poet    So 'tis: this comes off well and excellent.

Painter    Indifferent.

Poet                      Admirable: how this grace
    Speaks his own standing! what a mental power
    This eye shoots forth! how big imagination
    Moves in this lip! to the dumbness of the gesture
    One might interpret.

Painter    It is a pretty mocking of the life.
    Here is a touch; is't good?

Poet    I will say of it,
    It tutors nature: artificial strife
    Lives in these touches, livelier than life.

    [Enter certain Senators, and pass over]

Painter    How this lord is follow'd!

Poet    The senators of Athens: happy man!

Painter    Look, more!

Poet    You see this confluence, this great flood
    of visitors.
    I have, in this rough work, shaped out a man,
    Whom this beneath world doth embrace and hug
    With amplest entertainment: my free drift
    Halts not particularly, but moves itself
    In a wide sea of wax: no levell'd malice
    Infects one comma in the course I hold;
    But flies an eagle flight, bold and forth on,
    Leaving no tract behind.

Painter    How shall I understand you?

Poet    I will unbolt to you.
    You see how all conditions, how all minds,
    As well of glib and slippery creatures as
    Of grave and austere quality, tender down
    Their services to Lord Timon: his large fortune
    Upon his good and gracious nature hanging
    Subdues and properties to his love and tendance
    All sorts of hearts; yea, from the glass-faced flatterer
    To Apemantus, that few things loves better
    Than to abhor himself: even he drops down
    The knee before him, and returns in peace
    Most rich in Timon's nod.

Painter    I saw them speak together.

Poet    Sir, I have upon a high and pleasant hill
    Feign'd Fortune to be throned: the base o' the mount
    Is rank'd with all deserts, all kind of natures,
    That labour on the bosom of this sphere
    To propagate their states: amongst them all,
    Whose eyes are on this sovereign lady fix'd,
    One do I personate of Lord Timon's frame,
    Whom Fortune with her ivory hand wafts to her;
    Whose present grace to present slaves and servants
    Translates his rivals.

Painter    'Tis conceived to scope.
    This throne, this Fortune, and this hill, methinks,
    With one man beckon'd from the rest below,
    Bowing his head against the sleepy mount
    To climb his happiness, would be well express'd
    In our condition.

Poet                      Nay, sir, but hear me on.
    All those which were his fellows but of late,
    Some better than his value, on the moment
    Follow his strides, his lobbies fill with tendance,
    Rain sacrificial whisperings in his ear,
    Make sacred even his stirrup, and through him
    Drink the free air.

Painter    Ay, marry, what of these?

Poet    When Fortune in her shift and change of mood
    Spurns down her late beloved, all his dependants
    Which labour'd after him to the mountain's top
    Even on their knees and hands, let him slip down,
    Not one accompanying his declining foot.

Painter    'Tis common:
    A thousand moral paintings I can show
    That shall demonstrate these quick blows of Fortune's
    More pregnantly than words. Yet you do well
    To show Lord Timon that mean eyes have seen
    The foot above the head.

    [Trumpets sound. Enter TIMON, addressing himself
    courteously to every suitor; a Messenger from
    VENTIDIUS talking with him; LUCILIUS and other
    servants following]

TIMON    Imprison'd is he, say you?

Messenger    Ay, my good lord: five talents is his debt,
    His means most short, his creditors most strait:
    Your honourable letter he desires
    To those have shut him up; which failing,
    Periods his comfort.

TIMON    Noble Ventidius! Well;
    I am not of that feather to shake off
    My friend when he must need me. I do know him
    A gentleman that well deserves a help:
    Which he shall have: I'll pay the debt,
    and free him.

Messenger    Your lordship ever binds him.

TIMON    Commend me to him: I will send his ransom;
    And being enfranchised, bid him come to me.
    'Tis not enough to help the feeble up,
    But to support him after. Fare you well.

Messenger    All happiness to your honour!

    [Exit]

    [Enter an old Athenian]

Old Athenian    Lord Timon, hear me speak.

TIMON    Freely, good father.

Old Athenian    Thou hast a servant named Lucilius.

TIMON    I have so: what of him?

Old Athenian    Most noble Timon, call the man before thee.

TIMON    Attends he here, or no? Lucilius!

LUCILIUS    Here, at your lordship's service.

Old Athenian    This fellow here, Lord Timon, this thy creature,
    By night frequents my house. I am a man
    That from my first have been inclined to thrift;
    And my estate deserves an heir more raised
    Than one which holds a trencher.

TIMON    Well; what further?

Old Athenian    One only daughter have I, no kin else,
    On whom I may confer what I have got:
    The maid is fair, o' the youngest for a bride,
    And I have bred her at my dearest cost
    In qualities of the best. This man of thine
    Attempts her love: I prithee, noble lord,
    Join with me to forbid him her resort;
    Myself have spoke in vain.

TIMON    The man is honest.

Old Athenian    Therefore he will be, Timon:
    His honesty rewards him in itself;
    It must not bear my daughter.

TIMON    Does she love him?

Old Athenian    She is young and apt:
    Our own precedent passions do instruct us
    What levity's in youth.

TIMON    [To LUCILIUS]           Love you the maid?

LUCILIUS    Ay, my good lord, and she accepts of it.

Old Athenian    If in her marriage my consent be missing,
    I call the gods to witness, I will choose
    Mine heir from forth the beggars of the world,
    And dispossess her all.

TIMON    How shall she be endow'd,
    if she be mated with an equal husband?

Old Athenian    Three talents on the present; in future, all.

TIMON    This gentleman of mine hath served me long:
    To build his fortune I will strain a little,
    For 'tis a bond in men. Give him thy daughter:
    What you bestow, in him I'll counterpoise,
    And make him weigh with her.

Old Athenian    Most noble lord,
    Pawn me to this your honour, she is his.

TIMON    My hand to thee; mine honour on my promise.

LUCILIUS    Humbly I thank your lordship: never may
    The state or fortune fall into my keeping,
    Which is not owed to you!

    [Exeunt LUCILIUS and Old Athenian]

Poet    Vouchsafe my labour, and long live your lordship!

TIMON    I thank you; you shall hear from me anon:
    Go not away. What have you there, my friend?

Painter    A piece of painting, which I do beseech
    Your lordship to accept.

TIMON    Painting is welcome.
    The painting is almost the natural man;
    or since dishonour traffics with man's nature,
    He is but outside: these pencill'd figures are
    Even such as they give out. I like your work;
    And you shall find I like it: wait attendance
    Till you hear further from me.

Painter    The gods preserve ye!

TIMON    Well fare you, gentleman: give me your hand;
    We must needs dine together. Sir, your jewel
    Hath suffer'd under praise.

Jeweller    What, my lord! dispraise?

TIMON    A more satiety of commendations.
    If I should pay you for't as 'tis extoll'd,
    It would unclew me quite.

Jeweller    My lord, 'tis rated
    As those which sell would give: but you well know,
    Things of like value differing in the owners
    Are prized by their masters: believe't, dear lord,
    You mend the jewel by the wearing it.

TIMON    Well mock'd.

Merchant    No, my good lord; he speaks the common tongue,
    Which all men speak with him.

TIMON    Look, who comes here: will you be chid?

    [Enter APEMANTUS]

Jeweller: We'll bear, with your lordship.

Merchant    He'll spare none.

TIMON    Good morrow to thee, gentle Apemantus!

APEMANTUS    Till I be gentle, stay thou for thy good morrow;
    When thou art Timon's dog, and these knaves honest.

TIMON    Why dost thou call them knaves? thou know'st them not.

APEMANTUS    Are they not Athenians?

TIMON    Yes.

APEMANTUS    Then I repent not.

Jeweller: You know me, Apemantus?

APEMANTUS    Thou know'st I do: I call'd thee by thy name.

TIMON    Thou art proud, Apemantus.

APEMANTUS    Of nothing so much as that I am not like Timon.

TIMON    Whither art going?

APEMANTUS    To knock out an honest Athenian's brains.

TIMON    That's a deed thou'lt die for.

APEMANTUS    Right, if doing nothing be death by the law.

TIMON    How likest thou this picture, Apemantus?

APEMANTUS    The best, for the innocence.

TIMON    Wrought he not well that painted it?

APEMANTUS    He wrought better that made the painter; and yet
    he's but a filthy piece of work.

Painter    You're a dog.

APEMANTUS    Thy mother's of my generation: what's she, if I be a dog?

TIMON    Wilt dine with me, Apemantus?

APEMANTUS    No; I eat not lords.

TIMON    An thou shouldst, thou 'ldst anger ladies.

APEMANTUS    O, they eat lords; so they come by great bellies.

TIMON    That's a lascivious apprehension.

APEMANTUS    So thou apprehendest it: take it for thy labour.

TIMON    How dost thou like this jewel, Apemantus?

APEMANTUS    Not so well as plain-dealing, which will not cost a
    man a doit.

TIMON    What dost thou think 'tis worth?

APEMANTUS    Not worth my thinking. How now, poet!

Poet    How now, philosopher!

APEMANTUS    Thou liest.

Poet    Art not one?

APEMANTUS    Yes.

Poet    Then I lie not.

APEMANTUS    Art not a poet?

Poet    Yes.

APEMANTUS    Then thou liest: look in thy last work, where thou
    hast feigned him a worthy fellow.

Poet    That's not feigned; he is so.

APEMANTUS    Yes, he is worthy of thee, and to pay thee for thy
    labour: he that loves to be flattered is worthy o'
    the flatterer. Heavens, that I were a lord!

TIMON    What wouldst do then, Apemantus?

APEMANTUS    E'en as Apemantus does now; hate a lord with my heart.

TIMON    What, thyself?

APEMANTUS    Ay.

TIMON    Wherefore?

APEMANTUS    That I had no angry wit to be a lord.
    Art not thou a merchant?

Merchant    Ay, Apemantus.

APEMANTUS    Traffic confound thee, if the gods will not!

Merchant    If traffic do it, the gods do it.

APEMANTUS    Traffic's thy god; and thy god confound thee!

    [Trumpet sounds. Enter a Messenger]

TIMON    What trumpet's that?

Messenger    'Tis Alcibiades, and some twenty horse,
    All of companionship.

TIMON    Pray, entertain them; give them guide to us.

    [Exeunt some Attendants]

    You must needs dine with me: go not you hence
    Till I have thank'd you: when dinner's done,
    Show me this piece. I am joyful of your sights.

    [Enter ALCIBIADES, with the rest]

    Most welcome, sir!

APEMANTUS                      So, so, there!
    Aches contract and starve your supple joints!
    That there should be small love 'mongst these
    sweet knaves,
    And all this courtesy! The strain of man's bred out
    Into baboon and monkey.

ALCIBIADES    Sir, you have saved my longing, and I feed
    Most hungerly on your sight.

TIMON    Right welcome, sir!
    Ere we depart, we'll share a bounteous time
    In different pleasures. Pray you, let us in.

    [Exeunt all except APEMANTUS]

    [Enter two Lords]

First Lord    What time o' day is't, Apemantus?

APEMANTUS    Time to be honest.

First Lord    That time serves still.

APEMANTUS    The more accursed thou, that still omitt'st it.

Second Lord    Thou art going to Lord Timon's feast?

APEMANTUS    Ay, to see meat fill knaves and wine heat fools.

Second Lord    Fare thee well, fare thee well.

APEMANTUS    Thou art a fool to bid me farewell twice.

Second Lord    Why, Apemantus?

APEMANTUS    Shouldst have kept one to thyself, for I mean to
    give thee none.

First Lord    Hang thyself!

APEMANTUS    No, I will do nothing at thy bidding: make thy
    requests to thy friend.

Second Lord    Away, unpeaceable dog, or I'll spurn thee hence!

APEMANTUS    I will fly, like a dog, the heels o' the ass.

    [Exit]

First Lord    He's opposite to humanity. Come, shall we in,
    And taste Lord Timon's bounty? he outgoes
    The very heart of kindness.

Second Lord    He pours it out; Plutus, the god of gold,
    Is but his steward: no meed, but he repays
    Sevenfold above itself; no gift to him,
    But breeds the giver a return exceeding
    All use of quittance.

First Lord    The noblest mind he carries
    That ever govern'd man.

Second Lord    Long may he live in fortunes! Shall we in?

First Lord    I'll keep you company.

    [Exeunt]




    TIMON OF ATHENS


ACT I



SCENE II    A banqueting-room in Timon's house.


    [Hautboys playing loud music. A great banquet
    served in; FLAVIUS and others attending; then enter
    TIMON, ALCIBIADES, Lords, Senators, and VENTIDIUS.
    Then comes, dropping, after all, APEMANTUS,
    discontentedly, like himself]

VENTIDIUS    Most honour'd Timon,
    It hath pleased the gods to remember my father's age,
    And call him to long peace.
    He is gone happy, and has left me rich:
    Then, as in grateful virtue I am bound
    To your free heart, I do return those talents,
    Doubled with thanks and service, from whose help
    I derived liberty.

TIMON                      O, by no means,
    Honest Ventidius; you mistake my love:
    I gave it freely ever; and there's none
    Can truly say he gives, if he receives:
    If our betters play at that game, we must not dare
    To imitate them; faults that are rich are fair.

VENTIDIUS    A noble spirit!

TIMON                      Nay, my lords,

    [They all stand ceremoniously looking on TIMON]

    Ceremony was but devised at first
    To set a gloss on faint deeds, hollow welcomes,
    Recanting goodness, sorry ere 'tis shown;
    But where there is true friendship, there needs none.
    Pray, sit; more welcome are ye to my fortunes
    Than my fortunes to me.

    [They sit]

First Lord    My lord, we always have confess'd it.

APEMANTUS    Ho, ho, confess'd it! hang'd it, have you not?

TIMON    O, Apemantus, you are welcome.

APEMANTUS    No;
    You shall not make me welcome:
    I come to have thee thrust me out of doors.

TIMON    Fie, thou'rt a churl; ye've got a humour there
    Does not become a man: 'tis much to blame.
    They say, my lords, 'ira furor brevis est;' but yond
    man is ever angry. Go, let him have a table by
    himself, for he does neither affect company, nor is
    he fit for't, indeed.

APEMANTUS    Let me stay at thine apperil, Timon: I come to
    observe; I give thee warning on't.

TIMON    I take no heed of thee; thou'rt an Athenian,
    therefore welcome: I myself would have no power;
    prithee, let my meat make thee silent.

APEMANTUS    I scorn thy meat; 'twould choke me, for I should
    ne'er flatter thee. O you gods, what a number of
    men eat Timon, and he sees 'em not! It grieves me
    to see so many dip their meat in one man's blood;
    and all the madness is, he cheers them up too.
    I wonder men dare trust themselves with men:
    Methinks they should invite them without knives;
    Good for their meat, and safer for their lives.
    There's much example for't; the fellow that sits
    next him now, parts bread with him, pledges the
    breath of him in a divided draught, is the readiest
    man to kill him: 't has been proved. If I were a
    huge man, I should fear to drink at meals;
    Lest they should spy my windpipe's dangerous notes:
    Great men should drink with harness on their throats.

TIMON    My lord, in heart; and let the health go round.

Second Lord    Let it flow this way, my good lord.

APEMANTUS    Flow this way! A brave fellow! he keeps his tides
    well. Those healths will make thee and thy state
    look ill, Timon. Here's that which is too weak to
    be a sinner, honest water, which ne'er left man i' the mire:
    This and my food are equals; there's no odds:
    Feasts are too proud to give thanks to the gods.

    Apemantus' grace.

    Immortal gods, I crave no pelf;
    I pray for no man but myself:
    Grant I may never prove so fond,
    To trust man on his oath or bond;
    Or a harlot, for her weeping;
    Or a dog, that seems a-sleeping:
    Or a keeper with my freedom;
    Or my friends, if I should need 'em.
    Amen. So fall to't:
    Rich men sin, and I eat root.

    [Eats and drinks]

    Much good dich thy good heart, Apemantus!

TIMON    Captain Alcibiades, your heart's in the field now.

ALCIBIADES    My heart is ever at your service, my lord.

TIMON    You had rather be at a breakfast of enemies than a
    dinner of friends.

ALCIBIADES    So the were bleeding-new, my lord, there's no meat
    like 'em: I could wish my best friend at such a feast.

APEMANTUS    Would all those fatterers were thine enemies then,
    that then thou mightst kill 'em and bid me to 'em!

First Lord    Might we but have that happiness, my lord, that you
    would once use our hearts, whereby we might express
    some part of our zeals, we should think ourselves
    for ever perfect.

TIMON    O, no doubt, my good friends, but the gods
    themselves have provided that I shall have much help
    from you: how had you been my friends else? why
    have you that charitable title from thousands, did
    not you chiefly belong to my heart? I have told
    more of you to myself than you can with modesty
    speak in your own behalf; and thus far I confirm
    you. O you gods, think I, what need we have any
    friends, if we should ne'er have need of 'em? they
    were the most needless creatures living, should we
    ne'er have use for 'em, and would most resemble
    sweet instruments hung up in cases that keep their
    sounds to themselves. Why, I have often wished
    myself poorer, that I might come nearer to you. We
    are born to do benefits: and what better or
    properer can we can our own than the riches of our
    friends? O, what a precious comfort 'tis, to have
    so many, like brothers, commanding one another's
    fortunes! O joy, e'en made away ere 't can be born!
    Mine eyes cannot hold out water, methinks: to
    forget their faults, I drink to you.

APEMANTUS    Thou weepest to make them drink, Timon.

Second Lord    Joy had the like conception in our eyes
    And at that instant like a babe sprung up.

APEMANTUS    Ho, ho! I laugh to think that babe a bastard.

Third Lord    I promise you, my lord, you moved me much.

APEMANTUS    Much!

    [Tucket, within]

TIMON    What means that trump?

    [Enter a Servant]

         How now?

Servant    Please you, my lord, there are certain
    ladies most desirous of admittance.

TIMON    Ladies! what are their wills?

Servant    There comes with them a forerunner, my lord, which
    bears that office, to signify their pleasures.

TIMON    I pray, let them be admitted.

    [Enter Cupid]

Cupid    Hail to thee, worthy Timon, and to all
    That of his bounties taste! The five best senses
    Acknowledge thee their patron; and come freely
    To gratulate thy plenteous bosom: th' ear,
    Taste, touch and smell, pleased from thy tale rise;
    They only now come but to feast thine eyes.

TIMON    They're welcome all; let 'em have kind admittance:
    Music, make their welcome!

    [Exit Cupid]

First Lord    You see, my lord, how ample you're beloved.

    [Music. Re-enter Cupid with a mask of Ladies
    as Amazons, with lutes in their hands,
    dancing and playing]

APEMANTUS    Hoy-day, what a sweep of vanity comes this way!
    They dance! they are mad women.
    Like madness is the glory of this life.
    As this pomp shows to a little oil and root.
    We make ourselves fools, to disport ourselves;
    And spend our flatteries, to drink those men
    Upon whose age we void it up again,
    With poisonous spite and envy.
    Who lives that's not depraved or depraves?
    Who dies, that bears not one spurn to their graves
    Of their friends' gift?
    I should fear those that dance before me now
    Would one day stamp upon me: 't has been done;
    Men shut their doors against a setting sun.

    [The Lords rise from table, with much adoring of
    TIMON; and to show their loves, each singles out an
    Amazon, and all dance, men with women, a lofty
    strain or two to the hautboys, and cease]

TIMON    You have done our pleasures much grace, fair ladies,
    Set a fair fashion on our entertainment,
    Which was not half so beautiful and kind;
    You have added worth unto 't and lustre,
    And entertain'd me with mine own device;
    I am to thank you for 't.

First Lady    My lord, you take us even at the best.

APEMANTUS    'Faith, for the worst is filthy; and would not hold
    taking, I doubt me.

TIMON    Ladies, there is an idle banquet attends you:
    Please you to dispose yourselves.

All Ladies    Most thankfully, my lord.

    [Exeunt Cupid and Ladies]

TIMON    Flavius.

FLAVIUS    My lord?

TIMON           The little casket bring me hither.

FLAVIUS    Yes, my lord. More jewels yet!
    There is no crossing him in 's humour;

    [Aside]

    Else I should tell him,--well, i' faith I should,
    When all's spent, he 'ld be cross'd then, an he could.
    'Tis pity bounty had not eyes behind,
    That man might ne'er be wretched for his mind.

    [Exit]

First Lord    Where be our men?

Servant    Here, my lord, in readiness.

Second Lord    Our horses!

    [Re-enter FLAVIUS, with the casket]

TIMON              O my friends,
    I have one word to say to you: look you, my good lord,
    I must entreat you, honour me so much
    As to advance this jewel; accept it and wear it,
    Kind my lord.

First Lord    I am so far already in your gifts,--

All    So are we all.

    [Enter a Servant]

Servant    My lord, there are certain nobles of the senate
    Newly alighted, and come to visit you.

TIMON    They are fairly welcome.

FLAVIUS    I beseech your honour,
    Vouchsafe me a word; it does concern you near.

TIMON    Near! why then, another time I'll hear thee:
    I prithee, let's be provided to show them
    entertainment.

FLAVIUS    [Aside]  I scarce know how.

    [Enter a Second Servant]

Second Servant    May it please your honour, Lord Lucius,
    Out of his free love, hath presented to you
    Four milk-white horses, trapp'd in silver.

TIMON    I shall accept them fairly; let the presents
    Be worthily entertain'd.

    [Enter a third Servant]

           How now! what news?

Third Servant    Please you, my lord, that honourable
    gentleman, Lord Lucullus, entreats your company
    to-morrow to hunt with him, and has sent your honour
    two brace of greyhounds.

TIMON    I'll hunt with him; and let them be received,
    Not without fair reward.

FLAVIUS    [Aside]                What will this come to?
    He commands us to provide, and give great gifts,
    And all out of an empty coffer:
    Nor will he know his purse, or yield me this,
    To show him what a beggar his heart is,
    Being of no power to make his wishes good:
    His promises fly so beyond his state
    That what he speaks is all in debt; he owes
    For every word: he is so kind that he now
    Pays interest for 't; his land's put to their books.
    Well, would I were gently put out of office
    Before I were forced out!
    Happier is he that has no friend to feed
    Than such that do e'en enemies exceed.
    I bleed inwardly for my lord.

    [Exit]

TIMON    You do yourselves
    Much wrong, you bate too much of your own merits:
    Here, my lord, a trifle of our love.

Second Lord    With more than common thanks I will receive it.

Third Lord    O, he's the very soul of bounty!

TIMON    And now I remember, my lord, you gave
    Good words the other day of a bay courser
    I rode on: it is yours, because you liked it.

Second Lord    O, I beseech you, pardon me, my lord, in that.

TIMON    You may take my word, my lord; I know, no man
    Can justly praise but what he does affect:
    I weigh my friend's affection with mine own;
    I'll tell you true. I'll call to you.

All Lords    O, none so welcome.

TIMON    I take all and your several visitations
    So kind to heart, 'tis not enough to give;
    Methinks, I could deal kingdoms to my friends,
    And ne'er be weary. Alcibiades,
    Thou art a soldier, therefore seldom rich;
    It comes in charity to thee: for all thy living
    Is 'mongst the dead, and all the lands thou hast
    Lie in a pitch'd field.

ALCIBIADES    Ay, defiled land, my lord.

First Lord    We are so virtuously bound--

TIMON    And so
    Am I to you.

Second Lord    So infinitely endear'd--

TIMON    All to you. Lights, more lights!

First Lord    The best of happiness,
    Honour and fortunes, keep with you, Lord Timon!

TIMON    Ready for his friends.

    [Exeunt all but APEMANTUS and TIMON]

APEMANTUS    What a coil's here!
    Serving of becks and jutting-out of bums!
    I doubt whether their legs be worth the sums
    That are given for 'em. Friendship's full of dregs:
    Methinks, false hearts should never have sound legs,
    Thus honest fools lay out their wealth on court'sies.

TIMON    Now, Apemantus, if thou wert not sullen, I would be
    good to thee.

APEMANTUS    No, I'll nothing: for if I should be bribed too,
    there would be none left to rail upon thee, and then
    thou wouldst sin the faster. Thou givest so long,
    Timon, I fear me thou wilt give away thyself in
    paper shortly: what need these feasts, pomps and
    vain-glories?

TIMON    Nay, an you begin to rail on society once, I am
    sworn not to give regard to you. Farewell; and come
    with better music.

    [Exit]

APEMANTUS    So:
    Thou wilt not hear me now; thou shalt not then:
    I'll lock thy heaven from thee.
    O, that men's ears should be
    To counsel deaf, but not to flattery!

    [Exit]




    TIMON OF ATHENS


ACT II



SCENE I    A Senator's house.


    [Enter Senator, with papers in his hand]

Senator    And late, five thousand: to Varro and to Isidore
    He owes nine thousand; besides my former sum,
    Which makes it five and twenty. Still in motion
    Of raging waste? It cannot hold; it will not.
    If I want gold, steal but a beggar's dog,
    And give it Timon, why, the dog coins gold.
    If I would sell my horse, and buy twenty more
    Better than he, why, give my horse to Timon,
    Ask nothing, give it him, it foals me, straight,
    And able horses. No porter at his gate,
    But rather one that smiles and still invites
    All that pass by. It cannot hold: no reason
    Can found his state in safety. Caphis, ho!
    Caphis, I say!

    [Enter CAPHIS]

CAPHIS    Here, sir; what is your pleasure?

Senator    Get on your cloak, and haste you to Lord Timon;
    Importune him for my moneys; be not ceased
    With slight denial, nor then silenced when--
    'Commend me to your master'--and the cap
    Plays in the right hand, thus: but tell him,
    My uses cry to me, I must serve my turn
    Out of mine own; his days and times are past
    And my reliances on his fracted dates
    Have smit my credit: I love and honour him,
    But must not break my back to heal his finger;
    Immediate are my needs, and my relief
    Must not be toss'd and turn'd to me in words,
    But find supply immediate. Get you gone:
    Put on a most importunate aspect,
    A visage of demand; for, I do fear,
    When every feather sticks in his own wing,
    Lord Timon will be left a naked gull,
    Which flashes now a phoenix. Get you gone.

CAPHIS    I go, sir.

Senator    'I go, sir!'--Take the bonds along with you,
    And have the dates in contempt.

CAPHIS    I will, sir.

Senator    Go.

    [Exeunt]




    TIMON OF ATHENS


ACT II



SCENE II    The same. A hall in Timon's house.


    [Enter FLAVIUS, with many bills in his hand]

FLAVIUS    No care, no stop! so senseless of expense,
    That he will neither know how to maintain it,
    Nor cease his flow of riot: takes no account
    How things go from him, nor resumes no care
    Of what is to continue: never mind
    Was to be so unwise, to be so kind.
    What shall be done? he will not hear, till feel:
    I must be round with him, now he comes from hunting.
    Fie, fie, fie, fie!

    [Enter CAPHIS, and the Servants of Isidore and Varro]

CAPHIS    Good even, Varro: what,
    You come for money?

Varro's Servant    Is't not your business too?

CAPHIS    It is: and yours too, Isidore?

Isidore's Servant    It is so.

CAPHIS    Would we were all discharged!

Varro's Servant    I fear it.

CAPHIS    Here comes the lord.

    [Enter TIMON, ALCIBIADES, and Lords, &c]

TIMON    So soon as dinner's done, we'll forth again,
    My Alcibiades. With me? what is your will?

CAPHIS    My lord, here is a note of certain dues.

TIMON    Dues! Whence are you?

CAPHIS    Of Athens here, my lord.

TIMON    Go to my steward.

CAPHIS    Please it your lordship, he hath put me off
    To the succession of new days this month:
    My master is awaked by great occasion
    To call upon his own, and humbly prays you
    That with your other noble parts you'll suit
    In giving him his right.

TIMON    Mine honest friend,
    I prithee, but repair to me next morning.

CAPHIS    Nay, good my lord,--

TIMON    Contain thyself, good friend.

Varro's Servant    One Varro's servant, my good lord,--

Isidore's Servant    From Isidore;
    He humbly prays your speedy payment.

CAPHIS    If you did know, my lord, my master's wants--

Varro's Servant    'Twas due on forfeiture, my lord, six weeks And past.

Isidore's Servant             Your steward puts me off, my lord;
    And I am sent expressly to your lordship.

TIMON    Give me breath.
    I do beseech you, good my lords, keep on;
    I'll wait upon you instantly.

    [Exeunt ALCIBIADES and Lords]

    [To FLAVIUS]

                Come hither: pray you,
    How goes the world, that I am thus encounter'd
    With clamourous demands of date-broke bonds,
    And the detention of long-since-due debts,
    Against my honour?

FLAVIUS                      Please you, gentlemen,
    The time is unagreeable to this business:
    Your importunacy cease till after dinner,
    That I may make his lordship understand
    Wherefore you are not paid.

TIMON    Do so, my friends. See them well entertain'd.

    [Exit]

FLAVIUS    Pray, draw near.

    [Exit]

    [Enter APEMANTUS and Fool]

CAPHIS    Stay, stay, here comes the fool with Apemantus:
    let's ha' some sport with 'em.

Varro's Servant    Hang him, he'll abuse us.

Isidore's Servant    A plague upon him, dog!

Varro's Servant    How dost, fool?

APEMANTUS    Dost dialogue with thy shadow?

Varro's Servant    I speak not to thee.

APEMANTUS    No,'tis to thyself.

    [To the Fool]

    Come away.

Isidore's Servant    There's the fool hangs on your back already.

APEMANTUS    No, thou stand'st single, thou'rt not on him yet.

CAPHIS    Where's the fool now?

APEMANTUS    He last asked the question. Poor rogues, and
    usurers' men! bawds between gold and want!

All Servants    What are we, Apemantus?

APEMANTUS    Asses.

All Servants    Why?

APEMANTUS    That you ask me what you are, and do not know
    yourselves. Speak to 'em, fool.

Fool    How do you, gentlemen?

All Servants    Gramercies, good fool: how does your mistress?

Fool    She's e'en setting on water to scald such chickens
    as you are. Would we could see you at Corinth!

APEMANTUS    Good! gramercy.

    [Enter Page]

Fool    Look you, here comes my mistress' page.

Page    [To the Fool]  Why, how now, captain! what do you
    in this wise company? How dost thou, Apemantus?

APEMANTUS    Would I had a rod in my mouth, that I might answer
    thee profitably.

Page    Prithee, Apemantus, read me the superscription of
    these letters: I know not which is which.

APEMANTUS    Canst not read?

Page    No.

APEMANTUS    There will little learning die then, that day thou
    art hanged. This is to Lord Timon; this to
    Alcibiades. Go; thou wast born a bastard, and thou't
    die a bawd.

Page    Thou wast whelped a dog, and thou shalt famish a
    dog's death. Answer not; I am gone.

    [Exit]

APEMANTUS    E'en so thou outrunnest grace. Fool, I will go with
    you to Lord Timon's.

Fool    Will you leave me there?

APEMANTUS    If Timon stay at home. You three serve three usurers?

All Servants    Ay; would they served us!

APEMANTUS    So would I,--as good a trick as ever hangman served thief.

Fool    Are you three usurers' men?

All Servants    Ay, fool.

Fool    I think no usurer but has a fool to his servant: my
    mistress is one, and I am her fool. When men come
    to borrow of your masters, they approach sadly, and
    go away merry; but they enter my mistress' house
    merrily, and go away sadly: the reason of this?

Varro's Servant    I could render one.

APEMANTUS    Do it then, that we may account thee a whoremaster
    and a knave; which not-withstanding, thou shalt be
    no less esteemed.

Varro's Servant    What is a whoremaster, fool?

Fool    A fool in good clothes, and something like thee.
    'Tis a spirit: sometime't appears like a lord;
    sometime like a lawyer; sometime like a philosopher,
    with two stones moe than's artificial one: he is
    very often like a knight; and, generally, in all
    shapes that man goes up and down in from fourscore
    to thirteen, this spirit walks in.

Varro's Servant    Thou art not altogether a fool.

Fool    Nor thou altogether a wise man: as much foolery as
    I have, so much wit thou lackest.

APEMANTUS    That answer might have become Apemantus.

All Servants    Aside, aside; here comes Lord Timon.

    [Re-enter TIMON and FLAVIUS]

APEMANTUS    Come with me, fool, come.

Fool    I do not always follow lover, elder brother and
    woman; sometime the philosopher.

    [Exeunt APEMANTUS and Fool]

FLAVIUS    Pray you, walk near: I'll speak with you anon.

    [Exeunt Servants]

TIMON    You make me marvel: wherefore ere this time
    Had you not fully laid my state before me,
    That I might so have rated my expense,
    As I had leave of means?

FLAVIUS    You would not hear me,
    At many leisures I proposed.

TIMON    Go to:
    Perchance some single vantages you took.
    When my indisposition put you back:
    And that unaptness made your minister,
    Thus to excuse yourself.

FLAVIUS    O my good lord,
    At many times I brought in my accounts,
    Laid them before you; you would throw them off,
    And say, you found them in mine honesty.
    When, for some trifling present, you have bid me
    Return so much, I have shook my head and wept;
    Yea, 'gainst the authority of manners, pray'd you
    To hold your hand more close: I did endure
    Not seldom, nor no slight cheques, when I have
    Prompted you in the ebb of your estate
    And your great flow of debts. My loved lord,
    Though you hear now, too late--yet now's a time--
    The greatest of your having lacks a half
    To pay your present debts.

TIMON    Let all my land be sold.

FLAVIUS    'Tis all engaged, some forfeited and gone;
    And what remains will hardly stop the mouth
    Of present dues: the future comes apace:
    What shall defend the interim? and at length
    How goes our reckoning?

TIMON    To Lacedaemon did my land extend.

FLAVIUS    O my good lord, the world is but a word:
    Were it all yours to give it in a breath,
    How quickly were it gone!

TIMON    You tell me true.

FLAVIUS    If you suspect my husbandry or falsehood,
    Call me before the exactest auditors
    And set me on the proof. So the gods bless me,
    When all our offices have been oppress'd
    With riotous feeders, when our vaults have wept
    With drunken spilth of wine, when every room
    Hath blazed with lights and bray'd with minstrelsy,
    I have retired me to a wasteful cock,
    And set mine eyes at flow.

TIMON    Prithee, no more.

FLAVIUS    Heavens, have I said, the bounty of this lord!
    How many prodigal bits have slaves and peasants
    This night englutted! Who is not Timon's?
    What heart, head, sword, force, means, but is
    Lord Timon's?
    Great Timon, noble, worthy, royal Timon!
    Ah, when the means are gone that buy this praise,
    The breath is gone whereof this praise is made:
    Feast-won, fast-lost; one cloud of winter showers,
    These flies are couch'd.

TIMON    Come, sermon me no further:
    No villanous bounty yet hath pass'd my heart;
    Unwisely, not ignobly, have I given.
    Why dost thou weep? Canst thou the conscience lack,
    To think I shall lack friends? Secure thy heart;
    If I would broach the vessels of my love,
    And try the argument of hearts by borrowing,
    Men and men's fortunes could I frankly use
    As I can bid thee speak.

FLAVIUS    Assurance bless your thoughts!

TIMON    And, in some sort, these wants of mine are crown'd,
    That I account them blessings; for by these
    Shall I try friends: you shall perceive how you
    Mistake my fortunes; I am wealthy in my friends.
    Within there! Flaminius! Servilius!

    [Enter FLAMINIUS, SERVILIUS, and other Servants]

Servants    My lord? my lord?

TIMON    I will dispatch you severally; you to Lord Lucius;
    to Lord Lucullus you: I hunted with his honour
    to-day: you, to Sempronius: commend me to their
    loves, and, I am proud, say, that my occasions have
    found time to use 'em toward a supply of money: let
    the request be fifty talents.

FLAMINIUS    As you have said, my lord.

FLAVIUS    [Aside]  Lord Lucius and Lucullus? hum!

TIMON    Go you, sir, to the senators--
    Of whom, even to the state's best health, I have
    Deserved this hearing--bid 'em send o' the instant
    A thousand talents to me.

FLAVIUS    I have been bold--
    For that I knew it the most general way--
    To them to use your signet and your name;
    But they do shake their heads, and I am here
    No richer in return.

TIMON    Is't true? can't be?

FLAVIUS    They answer, in a joint and corporate voice,
    That now they are at fall, want treasure, cannot
    Do what they would; are sorry--you are honourable,--
    But yet they could have wish'd--they know not--
    Something hath been amiss--a noble nature
    May catch a wrench--would all were well--'tis pity;--
    And so, intending other serious matters,
    After distasteful looks and these hard fractions,
    With certain half-caps and cold-moving nods
    They froze me into silence.

TIMON    You gods, reward them!
    Prithee, man, look cheerly. These old fellows
    Have their ingratitude in them hereditary:
    Their blood is caked, 'tis cold, it seldom flows;
    'Tis lack of kindly warmth they are not kind;
    And nature, as it grows again toward earth,
    Is fashion'd for the journey, dull and heavy.

    [To a Servant]

    Go to Ventidius.

    [To FLAVIUS]

    Prithee, be not sad,
    Thou art true and honest; ingeniously I speak.
    No blame belongs to thee.

    [To Servant]

            Ventidius lately
    Buried his father; by whose death he's stepp'd
    Into a great estate: when he was poor,
    Imprison'd and in scarcity of friends,
    I clear'd him with five talents: greet him from me;
    Bid him suppose some good necessity
    Touches his friend, which craves to be remember'd
    With those five talents.

    [Exit Servant]

    [To FLAVIUS]

           That had, give't these fellows
    To whom 'tis instant due. Ne'er speak, or think,
    That Timon's fortunes 'mong his friends can sink.

FLAVIUS    I would I could not think it: that thought is
    bounty's foe;
    Being free itself, it thinks all others so.

    [Exeunt]




    TIMON OF ATHENS


ACT III



SCENE I    A room in Lucullus' house.


    [FLAMINIUS waiting. Enter a Servant to him]

Servant    I have told my lord of you; he is coming down to you.

FLAMINIUS    I thank you, sir.

    [Enter LUCULLUS]

Servant    Here's my lord.

LUCULLUS    [Aside]  One of Lord Timon's men? a gift, I
    warrant. Why, this hits right; I dreamt of a silver
    basin and ewer to-night. Flaminius, honest
    Flaminius; you are very respectively welcome, sir.
    Fill me some wine.

    [Exit Servants]

    And how does that honourable, complete, free-hearted
    gentleman of Athens, thy very bountiful good lord
    and master?

FLAMINIUS    His health is well sir.

LUCULLUS    I am right glad that his health is well, sir: and
    what hast thou there under thy cloak, pretty Flaminius?

FLAMINIUS    'Faith, nothing but an empty box, sir; which, in my
    lord's behalf, I come to entreat your honour to
    supply; who, having great and instant occasion to
    use fifty talents, hath sent to your lordship to
    furnish him, nothing doubting your present
    assistance therein.

LUCULLUS    La, la, la, la! 'nothing doubting,' says he? Alas,
    good lord! a noble gentleman 'tis, if he would not
    keep so good a house. Many a time and often I ha'
    dined with him, and told him on't, and come again to
    supper to him, of purpose to have him spend less,
    and yet he would embrace no counsel, take no warning
    by my coming. Every man has his fault, and honesty
    is his: I ha' told him on't, but I could ne'er get
    him from't.

    [Re-enter Servant, with wine]

Servant    Please your lordship, here is the wine.

LUCULLUS    Flaminius, I have noted thee always wise. Here's to thee.

FLAMINIUS    Your lordship speaks your pleasure.

LUCULLUS    I have observed thee always for a towardly prompt
    spirit--give thee thy due--and one that knows what
    belongs to reason; and canst use the time well, if
    the time use thee well: good parts in thee.

    [To Servant]

    Get you gone, sirrah.

    [Exit Servant]

    Draw nearer, honest Flaminius. Thy lord's a
    bountiful gentleman: but thou art wise; and thou
    knowest well enough, although thou comest to me,
    that this is no time to lend money, especially upon
    bare friendship, without security. Here's three
    solidares for thee: good boy, wink at me, and say
    thou sawest me not. Fare thee well.

FLAMINIUS    Is't possible the world should so much differ,
    And we alive that lived? Fly, damned baseness,
    To him that worships thee!

    [Throwing the money back]

LUCULLUS    Ha! now I see thou art a fool, and fit for thy master.

    [Exit]

FLAMINIUS    May these add to the number that may scald thee!
    Let moulten coin be thy damnation,
    Thou disease of a friend, and not himself!
    Has friendship such a faint and milky heart,
    It turns in less than two nights? O you gods,
    I feel master's passion! this slave,
    Unto his honour, has my lord's meat in him:
    Why should it thrive and turn to nutriment,
    When he is turn'd to poison?
    O, may diseases only work upon't!
    And, when he's sick to death, let not that part of nature
    Which my lord paid for, be of any power
    To expel sickness, but prolong his hour!

    [Exit]




    TIMON OF ATHENS


ACT III



SCENE II    A public place.


    [Enter LUCILIUS, with three Strangers]

LUCILIUS    Who, the Lord Timon? he is my very good friend, and
    an honourable gentleman.

First Stranger    We know him for no less, though we are but strangers
    to him. But I can tell you one thing, my lord, and
    which I hear from common rumours: now Lord Timon's
    happy hours are done and past, and his estate
    shrinks from him.

LUCILIUS    Fie, no, do not believe it; he cannot want for money.

Second Stranger    But believe you this, my lord, that, not long ago,
    one of his men was with the Lord Lucullus to borrow
    so many talents, nay, urged extremely for't and
    showed what necessity belonged to't, and yet was denied.

LUCILIUS    How!

Second Stranger    I tell you, denied, my lord.

LUCILIUS    What a strange case was that! now, before the gods,
    I am ashamed on't. Denied that honourable man!
    there was very little honour showed in't. For my own
    part, I must needs confess, I have received some
    small kindnesses from him, as money, plate, jewels
    and such-like trifles, nothing comparing to his;
    yet, had he mistook him and sent to me, I should
    ne'er have denied his occasion so many talents.

    [Enter SERVILIUS]

SERVILIUS    See, by good hap, yonder's my lord;
    I have sweat to see his honour. My honoured lord,--

    [To LUCIUS]

LUCILIUS    Servilius! you are kindly met, sir. Fare thee well:
    commend me to thy honourable virtuous lord, my very
    exquisite friend.

SERVILIUS    May it please your honour, my lord hath sent--

LUCILIUS    Ha! what has he sent? I am so much endeared to
    that lord; he's ever sending: how shall I thank
    him, thinkest thou? And what has he sent now?

SERVILIUS    Has only sent his present occasion now, my lord;
    requesting your lordship to supply his instant use
    with so many talents.

LUCILIUS    I know his lordship is but merry with me;
    He cannot want fifty five hundred talents.

SERVILIUS    But in the mean time he wants less, my lord.
    If his occasion were not virtuous,
    I should not urge it half so faithfully.

LUCILIUS    Dost thou speak seriously, Servilius?

SERVILIUS    Upon my soul,'tis true, sir.

LUCILIUS    What a wicked beast was I to disfurnish myself
    against such a good time, when I might ha' shown
    myself honourable! how unluckily it happened, that I
    should purchase the day before for a little part,
    and undo a great deal of honoured! Servilius, now,
    before the gods, I am not able to do,--the more
    beast, I say:--I was sending to use Lord Timon
    myself, these gentlemen can witness! but I would
    not, for the wealth of Athens, I had done't now.
    Commend me bountifully to his good lordship; and I
    hope his honour will conceive the fairest of me,
    because I have no power to be kind: and tell him
    this from me, I count it one of my greatest
    afflictions, say, that I cannot pleasure such an
    honourable gentleman. Good Servilius, will you
    befriend me so far, as to use mine own words to him?

SERVILIUS    Yes, sir, I shall.

LUCILIUS    I'll look you out a good turn, Servilius.

    [Exit SERVILIUS]

    True as you said, Timon is shrunk indeed;
    And he that's once denied will hardly speed.

    [Exit]

First Stranger    Do you observe this, Hostilius?

Second Stranger    Ay, too well.

First Stranger    Why, this is the world's soul; and just of the
    same piece
    Is every flatterer's spirit. Who can call him
    His friend that dips in the same dish? for, in
    My knowing, Timon has been this lord's father,
    And kept his credit with his purse,
    Supported his estate; nay, Timon's money
    Has paid his men their wages: he ne'er drinks,
    But Timon's silver treads upon his lip;
    And yet--O, see the monstrousness of man
    When he looks out in an ungrateful shape!--
    He does deny him, in respect of his,
    What charitable men afford to beggars.

Third Stranger    Religion groans at it.

First Stranger    For mine own part,
    I never tasted Timon in my life,
    Nor came any of his bounties over me,
    To mark me for his friend; yet, I protest,
    For his right noble mind, illustrious virtue
    And honourable carriage,
    Had his necessity made use of me,
    I would have put my wealth into donation,
    And the best half should have return'd to him,
    So much I love his heart: but, I perceive,
    Men must learn now with pity to dispense;
    For policy sits above conscience.

    [Exeunt]




    TIMON OF ATHENS


ACT III



SCENE III    A room in Sempronius' house.


    [Enter SEMPRONIUS, and a Servant of TIMON's]

SEMPRONIUS    Must he needs trouble me in 't,--hum!--'bove
    all others?
    He might have tried Lord Lucius or Lucullus;
    And now Ventidius is wealthy too,
    Whom he redeem'd from prison: all these
    Owe their estates unto him.

Servant    My lord,
    They have all been touch'd and found base metal, for
    They have au denied him.

SEMPRONIUS    How! have they denied him?
    Has Ventidius and Lucullus denied him?
    And does he send to me? Three? hum!
    It shows but little love or judgment in him:
    Must I be his last refuge! His friends, like
    physicians,
    Thrive, give him over: must I take the cure upon me?
    Has much disgraced me in't; I'm angry at him,
    That might have known my place: I see no sense for't,
    But his occasion might have woo'd me first;
    For, in my conscience, I was the first man
    That e'er received gift from him:
    And does he think so backwardly of me now,
    That I'll requite its last? No:
    So it may prove an argument of laughter
    To the rest, and 'mongst lords I be thought a fool.
    I'ld rather than the worth of thrice the sum,
    Had sent to me first, but for my mind's sake;
    I'd such a courage to do him good. But now return,
    And with their faint reply this answer join;
    Who bates mine honour shall not know my coin.

    [Exit]

Servant    Excellent! Your lordship's a goodly villain. The
    devil knew not what he did when he made man
    politic; he crossed himself by 't: and I cannot
    think but, in the end, the villainies of man will
    set him clear. How fairly this lord strives to
    appear foul! takes virtuous copies to be wicked,
    like those that under hot ardent zeal would set
    whole realms on fire: Of such a nature is his
    politic love.
    This was my lord's best hope; now all are fled,
    Save only the gods: now his friends are dead,
    Doors, that were ne'er acquainted with their wards
    Many a bounteous year must be employ'd
    Now to guard sure their master.
    And this is all a liberal course allows;
    Who cannot keep his wealth must keep his house.

    [Exit]




    TIMON OF ATHENS


ACT III



SCENE IV    The same. A hall in Timon's house.


    [Enter two Servants of Varro, and the Servant of
    LUCIUS, meeting TITUS, HORTENSIUS, and other
    Servants of TIMON's creditors, waiting his coming out]

Varro's
First Servant    Well met; good morrow, Titus and Hortensius.

TITUS    The like to you kind Varro.

HORTENSIUS    Lucius!
    What, do we meet together?

Lucilius' Servant    Ay, and I think
    One business does command us all; for mine Is money.

TITUS    So is theirs and ours.

    [Enter PHILOTUS]

Lucilius' Servant    And Sir Philotus too!

PHILOTUS    Good day at once.

Lucilius' Servant                      Welcome, good brother.
    What do you think the hour?

PHILOTUS    Labouring for nine.

Lucilius' Servant    So much?

PHILOTUS    Is not my lord seen yet?

Lucilius' Servant    Not yet.

PHILOTUS    I wonder on't; he was wont to shine at seven.

Lucilius' Servant    Ay, but the days are wax'd shorter with him:
    You must consider that a prodigal course
    Is like the sun's; but not, like his, recoverable.
    I fear 'tis deepest winter in Lord Timon's purse;
    That is one may reach deep enough, and yet
    Find little.

PHILOTUS    I am of your fear for that.

TITUS    I'll show you how to observe a strange event.
    Your lord sends now for money.

HORTENSIUS    Most true, he does.

TITUS    And he wears jewels now of Timon's gift,
    For which I wait for money.

HORTENSIUS    It is against my heart.

Lucilius' Servant    Mark, how strange it shows,
    Timon in this should pay more than he owes:
    And e'en as if your lord should wear rich jewels,
    And send for money for 'em.

HORTENSIUS    I'm weary of this charge, the gods can witness:
    I know my lord hath spent of Timon's wealth,
    And now ingratitude makes it worse than stealth.

Varro's
First Servant    Yes, mine's three thousand crowns: what's yours?

Lucilius' Servant    Five thousand mine.

Varro's
First Servant    'Tis much deep: and it should seem by the sun,
    Your master's confidence was above mine;
    Else, surely, his had equall'd.

    Enter FLAMINIUS.

TITUS    One of Lord Timon's men.

Lucilius' Servant    Flaminius! Sir, a word: pray, is my lord ready to
    come forth?

FLAMINIUS    No, indeed, he is not.

TITUS    We attend his lordship; pray, signify so much.

FLAMINIUS    I need not tell him that; he knows you are too diligent.

    [Exit]

    [Enter FLAVIUS in a cloak, muffled]

Lucilius' Servant    Ha! is not that his steward muffled so?
    He goes away in a cloud: call him, call him.

TITUS    Do you hear, sir?

Varro's
Second Servant    By your leave, sir,--

FLAVIUS    What do ye ask of me, my friend?

TITUS    We wait for certain money here, sir.

FLAVIUS    Ay,
    If money were as certain as your waiting,
    'Twere sure enough.
    Why then preferr'd you not your sums and bills,
    When your false masters eat of my lord's meat?
    Then they could smile and fawn upon his debts
    And take down the interest into their
    gluttonous maws.
    You do yourselves but wrong to stir me up;
    Let me pass quietly:
    Believe 't, my lord and I have made an end;
    I have no more to reckon, he to spend.

Lucilius' Servant    Ay, but this answer will not serve.

FLAVIUS    If 'twill not serve,'tis not so base as you;
    For you serve knaves.

    [Exit]

Varro's
First Servant    How! what does his cashiered worship mutter?

Varro's
Second Servant    No matter what; he's poor, and that's revenge
    enough. Who can speak broader than he that has no
    house to put his head in? such may rail against
    great buildings.

    [Enter SERVILIUS]

TITUS    O, here's Servilius; now we shall know some answer.

SERVILIUS    If I might beseech you, gentlemen, to repair some
    other hour, I should derive much from't; for,
    take't of my soul, my lord leans wondrously to
    discontent: his comfortable temper has forsook him;
    he's much out of health, and keeps his chamber.

Lucilius' Servant: Many do keep their chambers are not sick:
    And, if it be so far beyond his health,
    Methinks he should the sooner pay his debts,
    And make a clear way to the gods.

SERVILIUS    Good gods!

TITUS    We cannot take this for answer, sir.

FLAMINIUS    [Within]  Servilius, help! My lord! my lord!

    [Enter TIMON, in a rage, FLAMINIUS following]

TIMON    What, are my doors opposed against my passage?
    Have I been ever free, and must my house
    Be my retentive enemy, my gaol?
    The place which I have feasted, does it now,
    Like all mankind, show me an iron heart?

Lucilius' Servant    Put in now, Titus.

TITUS    My lord, here is my bill.

Lucilius' Servant    Here's mine.

HORTENSIUS    And mine, my lord.

Both
Varro's Servants    And ours, my lord.

PHILOTUS    All our bills.

TIMON    Knock me down with 'em: cleave me to the girdle.

Lucilius' Servant    Alas, my lord,-

TIMON    Cut my heart in sums.

TITUS    Mine, fifty talents.

TIMON    Tell out my blood.

Lucilius' Servant    Five thousand crowns, my lord.

TIMON    Five thousand drops pays that.
    What yours?--and yours?

Varro's
First Servant    My lord,--

Varro's
Second Servant    My lord,--

TIMON    Tear me, take me, and the gods fall upon you!

    [Exit]

HORTENSIUS    'Faith, I perceive our masters may throw their caps
    at their money: these debts may well be called
    desperate ones, for a madman owes 'em.

    [Exeunt]

    [Re-enter TIMON and FLAVIUS]

TIMON    They have e'en put my breath from me, the slaves.
    Creditors? devils!

FLAVIUS    My dear lord,--

TIMON    What if it should be so?

FLAVIUS    My lord,--

TIMON    I'll have it so. My steward!

FLAVIUS    Here, my lord.

TIMON    So fitly? Go, bid all my friends again,
    Lucius, Lucullus, and Sempronius:
    All, sirrah, all:
    I'll once more feast the rascals.

FLAVIUS    O my lord,
    You only speak from your distracted soul;
    There is not so much left, to furnish out
    A moderate table.

TIMON                      Be't not in thy care; go,
    I charge thee, invite them all: let in the tide
    Of knaves once more; my cook and I'll provide.

    [Exeunt]




    TIMON OF ATHENS


ACT III



SCENE V    The same. The senate-house. The Senate sitting.


First Senator    My lord, you have my voice to it; the fault's
    Bloody; 'tis necessary he should die:
    Nothing emboldens sin so much as mercy.

Second Senator    Most true; the law shall bruise him.

    [Enter ALCIBIADES, with Attendants]

ALCIBIADES    Honour, health, and compassion to the senate!

First Senator    Now, captain?

ALCIBIADES    I am an humble suitor to your virtues;
    For pity is the virtue of the law,
    And none but tyrants use it cruelly.
    It pleases time and fortune to lie heavy
    Upon a friend of mine, who, in hot blood,
    Hath stepp'd into the law, which is past depth
    To those that, without heed, do plunge into 't.
    He is a man, setting his fate aside,
    Of comely virtues:
    Nor did he soil the fact with cowardice--
    An honour in him which buys out his fault--
    But with a noble fury and fair spirit,
    Seeing his reputation touch'd to death,
    He did oppose his foe:
    And with such sober and unnoted passion
    He did behave his anger, ere 'twas spent,
    As if he had but proved an argument.

First Senator    You undergo too strict a paradox,
    Striving to make an ugly deed look fair:
    Your words have took such pains as if they labour'd
    To bring manslaughter into form and set quarrelling
    Upon the head of valour; which indeed
    Is valour misbegot and came into the world
    When sects and factions were newly born:
    He's truly valiant that can wisely suffer
    The worst that man can breathe, and make his wrongs
    His outsides, to wear them like his raiment,
    carelessly,
    And ne'er prefer his injuries to his heart,
    To bring it into danger.
    If wrongs be evils and enforce us kill,
    What folly 'tis to hazard life for ill!

ALCIBIADES    My lord,--

First Senator           You cannot make gross sins look clear:
    To revenge is no valour, but to bear.

ALCIBIADES    My lords, then, under favour, pardon me,
    If I speak like a captain.
    Why do fond men expose themselves to battle,
    And not endure all threats? sleep upon't,
    And let the foes quietly cut their throats,
    Without repugnancy? If there be
    Such valour in the bearing, what make we
    Abroad? why then, women are more valiant
    That stay at home, if bearing carry it,
    And the ass more captain than the lion, the felon
    Loaden with irons wiser than the judge,
    If wisdom be in suffering. O my lords,
    As you are great, be pitifully good:
    Who cannot condemn rashness in cold blood?
    To kill, I grant, is sin's extremest gust;
    But, in defence, by mercy, 'tis most just.
    To be in anger is impiety;
    But who is man that is not angry?
    Weigh but the crime with this.

Second Senator    You breathe in vain.

ALCIBIADES    In vain! his service done
    At Lacedaemon and Byzantium
    Were a sufficient briber for his life.

First Senator    What's that?

ALCIBIADES    I say, my lords, he has done fair service,
    And slain in fight many of your enemies:
    How full of valour did he bear himself
    In the last conflict, and made plenteous wounds!

Second Senator    He has made too much plenty with 'em;
    He's a sworn rioter: he has a sin that often
    Drowns him, and takes his valour prisoner:
    If there were no foes, that were enough
    To overcome him: in that beastly fury
    He has been known to commit outrages,
    And cherish factions: 'tis inferr'd to us,
    His days are foul and his drink dangerous.

First Senator    He dies.

ALCIBIADES    Hard fate! he might have died in war.
    My lords, if not for any parts in him--
    Though his right arm might purchase his own time
    And be in debt to none--yet, more to move you,
    Take my deserts to his, and join 'em both:
    And, for I know your reverend ages love
    Security, I'll pawn my victories, all
    My honours to you, upon his good returns.
    If by this crime he owes the law his life,
    Why, let the war receive 't in valiant gore
    For law is strict, and war is nothing more.

First Senator    We are for law: he dies; urge it no more,
    On height of our displeasure: friend or brother,
    He forfeits his own blood that spills another.

ALCIBIADES    Must it be so? it must not be. My lords,
    I do beseech you, know me.

Second Senator    How!

ALCIBIADES    Call me to your remembrances.

Third Senator    What!

ALCIBIADES    I cannot think but your age has forgot me;
    It could not else be, I should prove so base,
    To sue, and be denied such common grace:
    My wounds ache at you.

First Senator    Do you dare our anger?
    'Tis in few words, but spacious in effect;
    We banish thee for ever.

ALCIBIADES    Banish me!
    Banish your dotage; banish usury,
    That makes the senate ugly.

First Senator    If, after two days' shine, Athens contain thee,
    Attend our weightier judgment. And, not to swell
    our spirit,
    He shall be executed presently.

    [Exeunt Senators]

ALCIBIADES    Now the gods keep you old enough; that you may live
    Only in bone, that none may look on you!
    I'm worse than mad: I have kept back their foes,
    While they have told their money and let out
    Their coin upon large interest, I myself
    Rich only in large hurts. All those for this?
    Is this the balsam that the usuring senate
    Pours into captains' wounds? Banishment!
    It comes not ill; I hate not to be banish'd;
    It is a cause worthy my spleen and fury,
    That I may strike at Athens. I'll cheer up
    My discontented troops, and lay for hearts.
    'Tis honour with most lands to be at odds;
    Soldiers should brook as little wrongs as gods.

    [Exit]




    TIMON OF ATHENS


ACT III



SCENE VI    The same. A banqueting-room in Timon's house.


    [Music. Tables set out: Servants attending.
    Enter divers Lords, Senators and others, at
    several doors]

First Lord    The good time of day to you, sir.

Second Lord    I also wish it to you. I think this honourable lord
    did but try us this other day.

First Lord    Upon that were my thoughts tiring, when we
    encountered: I hope it is not so low with him as
    he made it seem in the trial of his several friends.

Second Lord    It should not be, by the persuasion of his new feasting.

First Lord    I should think so: he hath sent me an earnest
    inviting, which many my near occasions did urge me
    to put off; but he hath conjured me beyond them, and
    I must needs appear.

Second Lord    In like manner was I in debt to my importunate
    business, but he would not hear my excuse. I am
    sorry, when he sent to borrow of me, that my
    provision was out.

First Lord    I am sick of that grief too, as I understand how all
    things go.

Second Lord    Every man here's so. What would he have borrowed of
    you?

First Lord    A thousand pieces.

Second Lord    A thousand pieces!

First Lord    What of you?

Second Lord    He sent to me, sir,--Here he comes.

    [Enter TIMON and Attendants]

TIMON    With all my heart, gentlemen both; and how fare you?

First Lord    Ever at the best, hearing well of your lordship.

Second Lord    The swallow follows not summer more willing than we
    your lordship.

TIMON    [Aside]  Nor more willingly leaves winter; such
    summer-birds are men. Gentlemen, our dinner will not
    recompense this long stay: feast your ears with the
    music awhile, if they will fare so harshly o' the
    trumpet's sound; we shall to 't presently.

First Lord    I hope it remains not unkindly with your lordship
    that I returned you an empty messenger.

TIMON    O, sir, let it not trouble you.

Second Lord    My noble lord,--

TIMON    Ah, my good friend, what cheer?

Second Lord    My most honourable lord, I am e'en sick of shame,
    that, when your lordship this other day sent to me,
    I was so unfortunate a beggar.

TIMON    Think not on 't, sir.

Second Lord    If you had sent but two hours before,--

TIMON    Let it not cumber your better remembrance.

    [The banquet brought in]

    Come, bring in all together.

Second Lord    All covered dishes!

First Lord    Royal cheer, I warrant you.

Third Lord    Doubt not that, if money and the season can yield
    it.

First Lord    How do you? What's the news?

Third Lord    Alcibiades is banished: hear you of it?


First Lord    |
    |  Alcibiades banished!
Second Lord    |


Third Lord    'Tis so, be sure of it.

First Lord    How! how!

Second Lord    I pray you, upon what?

TIMON    My worthy friends, will you draw near?

Third Lord    I'll tell you more anon. Here's a noble feast toward.

Second Lord    This is the old man still.

Third Lord    Will 't hold? will 't hold?

Second Lord    It does: but time will--and so--

Third Lord    I do conceive.

TIMON    Each man to his stool, with that spur as he would to
    the lip of his mistress: your diet shall be in all
    places alike. Make not a city feast of it, to let
    the meat cool ere we can agree upon the first place:
    sit, sit. The gods require our thanks.

    You great benefactors, sprinkle our society with
    thankfulness. For your own gifts, make yourselves
    praised: but reserve still to give, lest your
    deities be despised. Lend to each man enough, that
    one need not lend to another; for, were your
    godheads to borrow of men, men would forsake the
    gods. Make the meat be beloved more than the man
    that gives it. Let no assembly of twenty be without
    a score of villains: if there sit twelve women at
    the table, let a dozen of them be--as they are. The
    rest of your fees, O gods--the senators of Athens,
    together with the common lag of people--what is
    amiss in them, you gods, make suitable for
    destruction. For these my present friends, as they
    are to me nothing, so in nothing bless them, and to
    nothing are they welcome.

    Uncover, dogs, and lap.

    [The dishes are uncovered and seen to be full of
    warm water]

Some Speak    What does his lordship mean?

Some Others    I know not.

TIMON    May you a better feast never behold,
    You knot of mouth-friends I smoke and lukewarm water
    Is your perfection. This is Timon's last;
    Who, stuck and spangled with your flatteries,
    Washes it off, and sprinkles in your faces
    Your reeking villany.

    [Throwing the water in their faces]

        Live loathed and long,
    Most smiling, smooth, detested parasites,
    Courteous destroyers, affable wolves, meek bears,
    You fools of fortune, trencher-friends, time's flies,
    Cap and knee slaves, vapours, and minute-jacks!
    Of man and beast the infinite malady
    Crust you quite o'er! What, dost thou go?
    Soft! take thy physic first--thou too--and thou;--
    Stay, I will lend thee money, borrow none.

    [Throws the dishes at them, and drives them out]

    What, all in motion? Henceforth be no feast,
    Whereat a villain's not a welcome guest.
    Burn, house! sink, Athens! henceforth hated be
    Of Timon man and all humanity!

    [Exit]

    [Re-enter the Lords, Senators, &c]

First Lord    How now, my lords!

Second Lord    Know you the quality of Lord Timon's fury?

Third Lord    Push! did you see my cap?

Fourth Lord    I have lost my gown.

First Lord    He's but a mad lord, and nought but humour sways him.
    He gave me a jewel th' other day, and now he has
    beat it out of my hat: did you see my jewel?

Third Lord    Did you see my cap?

Second Lord    Here 'tis.

Fourth Lord    Here lies my gown.

First Lord    Let's make no stay.

Second Lord    Lord Timon's mad.

Third Lord    I feel 't upon my bones.

Fourth Lord    One day he gives us diamonds, next day stones.

    [Exeunt]




    TIMON OF ATHENS


ACT IV



SCENE I    Without the walls of Athens.


    [Enter TIMON]

TIMON    Let me look back upon thee. O thou wall,
    That girdlest in those wolves, dive in the earth,
    And fence not Athens! Matrons, turn incontinent!
    Obedience fail in children! slaves and fools,
    Pluck the grave wrinkled senate from the bench,
    And minister in their steads! to general filths
    Convert o' the instant, green virginity,
    Do 't in your parents' eyes! bankrupts, hold fast;
    Rather than render back, out with your knives,
    And cut your trusters' throats! bound servants, steal!
    Large-handed robbers your grave masters are,
    And pill by law. Maid, to thy master's bed;
    Thy mistress is o' the brothel! Son of sixteen,
    pluck the lined crutch from thy old limping sire,
    With it beat out his brains! Piety, and fear,
    Religion to the gods, peace, justice, truth,
    Domestic awe, night-rest, and neighbourhood,
    Instruction, manners, mysteries, and trades,
    Degrees, observances, customs, and laws,
    Decline to your confounding contraries,
    And let confusion live! Plagues, incident to men,
    Your potent and infectious fevers heap
    On Athens, ripe for stroke! Thou cold sciatica,
    Cripple our senators, that their limbs may halt
    As lamely as their manners. Lust and liberty
    Creep in the minds and marrows of our youth,
    That 'gainst the stream of virtue they may strive,
    And drown themselves in riot! Itches, blains,
    Sow all the Athenian bosoms; and their crop
    Be general leprosy! Breath infect breath,
    at their society, as their friendship, may
    merely poison! Nothing I'll bear from thee,
    But nakedness, thou detestable town!
    Take thou that too, with multiplying bans!
    Timon will to the woods; where he shall find
    The unkindest beast more kinder than mankind.
    The gods confound--hear me, you good gods all--
    The Athenians both within and out that wall!
    And grant, as Timon grows, his hate may grow
    To the whole race of mankind, high and low! Amen.

    [Exit]




    TIMON OF ATHENS


ACT IV



SCENE II    Athens. A room in Timon's house.


    [Enter FLAVIUS, with two or three Servants]

First Servant    Hear you, master steward, where's our master?
    Are we undone? cast off? nothing remaining?

FLAVIUS    Alack, my fellows, what should I say to you?
    Let me be recorded by the righteous gods,
    I am as poor as you.

First Servant    Such a house broke!
    So noble a master fall'n! All gone! and not
    One friend to take his fortune by the arm,
    And go along with him!

Second Servant    As we do turn our backs
    From our companion thrown into his grave,
    So his familiars to his buried fortunes
    Slink all away, leave their false vows with him,
    Like empty purses pick'd; and his poor self,
    A dedicated beggar to the air,
    With his disease of all-shunn'd poverty,
    Walks, like contempt, alone. More of our fellows.

    [Enter other Servants]

FLAVIUS    All broken implements of a ruin'd house.

Third Servant    Yet do our hearts wear Timon's livery;
    That see I by our faces; we are fellows still,
    Serving alike in sorrow: leak'd is our bark,
    And we, poor mates, stand on the dying deck,
    Hearing the surges threat: we must all part
    Into this sea of air.

FLAVIUS    Good fellows all,
    The latest of my wealth I'll share amongst you.
    Wherever we shall meet, for Timon's sake,
    Let's yet be fellows; let's shake our heads, and say,
    As 'twere a knell unto our master's fortunes,
    'We have seen better days.' Let each take some;
    Nay, put out all your hands. Not one word more:
    Thus part we rich in sorrow, parting poor.

    [Servants embrace, and part several ways]

    O, the fierce wretchedness that glory brings us!
    Who would not wish to be from wealth exempt,
    Since riches point to misery and contempt?
    Who would be so mock'd with glory? or to live
    But in a dream of friendship?
    To have his pomp and all what state compounds
    But only painted, like his varnish'd friends?
    Poor honest lord, brought low by his own heart,
    Undone by goodness! Strange, unusual blood,
    When man's worst sin is, he does too much good!
    Who, then, dares to be half so kind again?
    For bounty, that makes gods, does still mar men.
    My dearest lord, bless'd, to be most accursed,
    Rich, only to be wretched, thy great fortunes
    Are made thy chief afflictions. Alas, kind lord!
    He's flung in rage from this ingrateful seat
    Of monstrous friends, nor has he with him to
    Supply his life, or that which can command it.
    I'll follow and inquire him out:
    I'll ever serve his mind with my best will;
    Whilst I have gold, I'll be his steward still.

    [Exit]




    TIMON OF ATHENS


ACT IV



SCENE III    Woods and cave, near the seashore.


    [Enter TIMON, from the cave]

    O blessed breeding sun, draw from the earth
    Rotten humidity; below thy sister's orb
    Infect the air! Twinn'd brothers of one womb,
    Whose procreation, residence, and birth,
    Scarce is dividant, touch them with several fortunes;
    The greater scorns the lesser: not nature,
    To whom all sores lay siege, can bear great fortune,
    But by contempt of nature.
    Raise me this beggar, and deny 't that lord;
    The senator shall bear contempt hereditary,
    The beggar native honour.
    It is the pasture lards the rother's sides,
    The want that makes him lean. Who dares, who dares,
    In purity of manhood stand upright,
    And say 'This man's a flatterer?' if one be,
    So are they all; for every grise of fortune
    Is smooth'd by that below: the learned pate
    Ducks to the golden fool: all is oblique;
    There's nothing level in our cursed natures,
    But direct villany. Therefore, be abhorr'd
    All feasts, societies, and throngs of men!
    His semblable, yea, himself, Timon disdains:
    Destruction fang mankind! Earth, yield me roots!

    [Digging]

    Who seeks for better of thee, sauce his palate
    With thy most operant poison! What is here?
    Gold? yellow, glittering, precious gold? No, gods,
    I am no idle votarist: roots, you clear heavens!
    Thus much of this will make black white, foul fair,
    Wrong right, base noble, old young, coward valiant.
    Ha, you gods! why this? what this, you gods? Why, this
    Will lug your priests and servants from your sides,
    Pluck stout men's pillows from below their heads:
    This yellow slave
    Will knit and break religions, bless the accursed,
    Make the hoar leprosy adored, place thieves
    And give them title, knee and approbation
    With senators on the bench: this is it
    That makes the wappen'd widow wed again;
    She, whom the spital-house and ulcerous sores
    Would cast the gorge at, this embalms and spices
    To the April day again. Come, damned earth,
    Thou common whore of mankind, that put'st odds
    Among the route of nations, I will make thee
    Do thy right nature.

    [March afar off]

        Ha! a drum? Thou'rt quick,
    But yet I'll bury thee: thou'lt go, strong thief,
    When gouty keepers of thee cannot stand.
    Nay, stay thou out for earnest.

    [Keeping some gold]

    [Enter ALCIBIADES, with drum and fife, in
    warlike manner; PHRYNIA and TIMANDRA]

ALCIBIADES    What art thou there? speak.

TIMON    A beast, as thou art. The canker gnaw thy heart,
    For showing me again the eyes of man!

ALCIBIADES    What is thy name? Is man so hateful to thee,
    That art thyself a man?

TIMON    I am Misanthropos, and hate mankind.
    For thy part, I do wish thou wert a dog,
    That I might love thee something.

ALCIBIADES    I know thee well;
    But in thy fortunes am unlearn'd and strange.

TIMON    I know thee too; and more than that I know thee,
    I not desire to know. Follow thy drum;
    With man's blood paint the ground, gules, gules:
    Religious canons, civil laws are cruel;
    Then what should war be? This fell whore of thine
    Hath in her more destruction than thy sword,
    For all her cherubim look.

PHRYNIA    Thy lips rot off!

TIMON    I will not kiss thee; then the rot returns
    To thine own lips again.

ALCIBIADES    How came the noble Timon to this change?

TIMON    As the moon does, by wanting light to give:
    But then renew I could not, like the moon;
    There were no suns to borrow of.

ALCIBIADES    Noble Timon,
    What friendship may I do thee?

TIMON    None, but to
    Maintain my opinion.

ALCIBIADES    What is it, Timon?

TIMON    Promise me friendship, but perform none: if thou
    wilt not promise, the gods plague thee, for thou art
    a man! if thou dost perform, confound thee, for
    thou art a man!

ALCIBIADES    I have heard in some sort of thy miseries.

TIMON    Thou saw'st them, when I had prosperity.

ALCIBIADES    I see them now; then was a blessed time.

TIMON    As thine is now, held with a brace of harlots.

TIMANDRA    Is this the Athenian minion, whom the world
    Voiced so regardfully?

TIMON    Art thou Timandra?

TIMANDRA    Yes.

TIMON    Be a whore still: they love thee not that use thee;
    Give them diseases, leaving with thee their lust.
    Make use of thy salt hours: season the slaves
    For tubs and baths; bring down rose-cheeked youth
    To the tub-fast and the diet.

TIMANDRA    Hang thee, monster!

ALCIBIADES    Pardon him, sweet Timandra; for his wits
    Are drown'd and lost in his calamities.
    I have but little gold of late, brave Timon,
    The want whereof doth daily make revolt
    In my penurious band: I have heard, and grieved,
    How cursed Athens, mindless of thy worth,
    Forgetting thy great deeds, when neighbour states,
    But for thy sword and fortune, trod upon them,--

TIMON    I prithee, beat thy drum, and get thee gone.

ALCIBIADES    I am thy friend, and pity thee, dear Timon.

TIMON    How dost thou pity him whom thou dost trouble?
    I had rather be alone.

ALCIBIADES    Why, fare thee well:
    Here is some gold for thee.

TIMON    Keep it, I cannot eat it.

ALCIBIADES    When I have laid proud Athens on a heap,--

TIMON    Warr'st thou 'gainst Athens?

ALCIBIADES    Ay, Timon, and have cause.

TIMON    The gods confound them all in thy conquest;
    And thee after, when thou hast conquer'd!

ALCIBIADES    Why me, Timon?

TIMON                      That, by killing of villains,
    Thou wast born to conquer my country.
    Put up thy gold: go on,--here's gold,--go on;
    Be as a planetary plague, when Jove
    Will o'er some high-viced city hang his poison
    In the sick air: let not thy sword skip one:
    Pity not honour'd age for his white beard;
    He is an usurer: strike me the counterfeit matron;
    It is her habit only that is honest,
    Herself's a bawd: let not the virgin's cheek
    Make soft thy trenchant sword; for those milk-paps,
    That through the window-bars bore at men's eyes,
    Are not within the leaf of pity writ,
    But set them down horrible traitors: spare not the babe,
    Whose dimpled smiles from fools exhaust their mercy;
    Think it a bastard, whom the oracle
    Hath doubtfully pronounced thy throat shall cut,
    And mince it sans remorse: swear against objects;
    Put armour on thine ears and on thine eyes;
    Whose proof, nor yells of mothers, maids, nor babes,
    Nor sight of priests in holy vestments bleeding,
    Shall pierce a jot. There's gold to pay soldiers:
    Make large confusion; and, thy fury spent,
    Confounded be thyself! Speak not, be gone.

ALCIBIADES    Hast thou gold yet? I'll take the gold thou
    givest me,
    Not all thy counsel.

TIMON    Dost thou, or dost thou not, heaven's curse
    upon thee!


PHRYNIA    |
    |  Give us some gold, good Timon: hast thou more?
TIMANDRA    |


TIMON    Enough to make a whore forswear her trade,
    And to make whores, a bawd. Hold up, you sluts,
    Your aprons mountant: you are not oathable,
    Although, I know, you 'll swear, terribly swear
    Into strong shudders and to heavenly agues
    The immortal gods that hear you,--spare your oaths,
    I'll trust to your conditions: be whores still;
    And he whose pious breath seeks to convert you,
    Be strong in whore, allure him, burn him up;
    Let your close fire predominate his smoke,
    And be no turncoats: yet may your pains, six months,
    Be quite contrary: and thatch your poor thin roofs
    With burthens of the dead;--some that were hang'd,
    No matter:--wear them, betray with them: whore still;
    Paint till a horse may mire upon your face,
    A pox of wrinkles!


PHRYNIA    |
    |  Well, more gold: what then?
TIMANDRA    |   Believe't, that we'll do any thing for gold.


TIMON    Consumptions sow
    In hollow bones of man; strike their sharp shins,
    And mar men's spurring. Crack the lawyer's voice,
    That he may never more false title plead,
    Nor sound his quillets shrilly: hoar the flamen,
    That scolds against the quality of flesh,
    And not believes himself: down with the nose,
    Down with it flat; take the bridge quite away
    Of him that, his particular to foresee,
    Smells from the general weal: make curl'd-pate
    ruffians bald;
    And let the unscarr'd braggarts of the war
    Derive some pain from you: plague all;
    That your activity may defeat and quell
    The source of all erection. There's more gold:
    Do you damn others, and let this damn you,
    And ditches grave you all!


PHRYNIA    |
    |  More counsel with more money, bounteous Timon.
TIMANDRA    |


TIMON    More whore, more mischief first; I have given you earnest.

ALCIBIADES    Strike up the drum towards Athens! Farewell, Timon:
    If I thrive well, I'll visit thee again.

TIMON    If I hope well, I'll never see thee more.

ALCIBIADES    I never did thee harm.

TIMON    Yes, thou spokest well of me.

ALCIBIADES    Call'st thou that harm?

TIMON    Men daily find it. Get thee away, and take
    Thy beagles with thee.

ALCIBIADES    We but offend him. Strike!

    [Drum beats. Exeunt ALCIBIADES, PHRYNIA,
    and TIMANDRA]

TIMON    That nature, being sick of man's unkindness,
    Should yet be hungry! Common mother, thou,

    [Digging]

    Whose womb unmeasurable, and infinite breast,
    Teems, and feeds all; whose self-same mettle,
    Whereof thy proud child, arrogant man, is puff'd,
    Engenders the black toad and adder blue,
    The gilded newt and eyeless venom'd worm,
    With all the abhorred births below crisp heaven
    Whereon Hyperion's quickening fire doth shine;
    Yield him, who all thy human sons doth hate,
    From forth thy plenteous bosom, one poor root!
    Ensear thy fertile and conceptious womb,
    Let it no more bring out ingrateful man!
    Go great with tigers, dragons, wolves, and bears;
    Teem with new monsters, whom thy upward face
    Hath to the marbled mansion all above
    Never presented!--O, a root,--dear thanks!--
    Dry up thy marrows, vines, and plough-torn leas;
    Whereof ungrateful man, with liquorish draughts
    And morsels unctuous, greases his pure mind,
    That from it all consideration slips!

    [Enter APEMANTUS]

    More man? plague, plague!

APEMANTUS    I was directed hither: men report
    Thou dost affect my manners, and dost use them.

TIMON    'Tis, then, because thou dost not keep a dog,
    Whom I would imitate: consumption catch thee!

APEMANTUS    This is in thee a nature but infected;
    A poor unmanly melancholy sprung
    From change of fortune. Why this spade? this place?
    This slave-like habit? and these looks of care?
    Thy flatterers yet wear silk, drink wine, lie soft;
    Hug their diseased perfumes, and have forgot
    That ever Timon was. Shame not these woods,
    By putting on the cunning of a carper.
    Be thou a flatterer now, and seek to thrive
    By that which has undone thee: hinge thy knee,
    And let his very breath, whom thou'lt observe,
    Blow off thy cap; praise his most vicious strain,
    And call it excellent: thou wast told thus;
    Thou gavest thine ears like tapsters that bid welcome
    To knaves and all approachers: 'tis most just
    That thou turn rascal; hadst thou wealth again,
    Rascals should have 't. Do not assume my likeness.

TIMON    Were I like thee, I'ld throw away myself.

APEMANTUS    Thou hast cast away thyself, being like thyself;
    A madman so long, now a fool. What, think'st
    That the bleak air, thy boisterous chamberlain,
    Will put thy shirt on warm? will these moss'd trees,
    That have outlived the eagle, page thy heels,
    And skip where thou point'st out? will the
    cold brook,
    Candied with ice, caudle thy morning taste,
    To cure thy o'er-night's surfeit? Call the creatures
    Whose naked natures live in an the spite
    Of wreakful heaven, whose bare unhoused trunks,
    To the conflicting elements exposed,
    Answer mere nature; bid them flatter thee;
    O, thou shalt find--

TIMON    A fool of thee: depart.

APEMANTUS    I love thee better now than e'er I did.

TIMON    I hate thee worse.

APEMANTUS                      Why?

TIMON    Thou flatter'st misery.

APEMANTUS    I flatter not; but say thou art a caitiff.

TIMON    Why dost thou seek me out?

APEMANTUS    To vex thee.

TIMON    Always a villain's office or a fool's.
    Dost please thyself in't?

APEMANTUS    Ay.

TIMON    What! a knave too?

APEMANTUS    If thou didst put this sour-cold habit on
    To castigate thy pride, 'twere well: but thou
    Dost it enforcedly; thou'ldst courtier be again,
    Wert thou not beggar. Willing misery
    Outlives encertain pomp, is crown'd before:
    The one is filling still, never complete;
    The other, at high wish: best state, contentless,
    Hath a distracted and most wretched being,
    Worse than the worst, content.
    Thou shouldst desire to die, being miserable.

TIMON    Not by his breath that is more miserable.
    Thou art a slave, whom Fortune's tender arm
    With favour never clasp'd; but bred a dog.
    Hadst thou, like us from our first swath, proceeded
    The sweet degrees that this brief world affords
    To such as may the passive drugs of it
    Freely command, thou wouldst have plunged thyself
    In general riot; melted down thy youth
    In different beds of lust; and never learn'd
    The icy precepts of respect, but follow'd
    The sugar'd game before thee. But myself,
    Who had the world as my confectionary,
    The mouths, the tongues, the eyes and hearts of men
    At duty, more than I could frame employment,
    That numberless upon me stuck as leaves
    Do on the oak, hive with one winter's brush
    Fell from their boughs and left me open, bare
    For every storm that blows: I, to bear this,
    That never knew but better, is some burden:
    Thy nature did commence in sufferance, time
    Hath made thee hard in't. Why shouldst thou hate men?
    They never flatter'd thee: what hast thou given?
    If thou wilt curse, thy father, that poor rag,
    Must be thy subject, who in spite put stuff
    To some she beggar and compounded thee
    Poor rogue hereditary. Hence, be gone!
    If thou hadst not been born the worst of men,
    Thou hadst been a knave and flatterer.

APEMANTUS    Art thou proud yet?

TIMON    Ay, that I am not thee.

APEMANTUS    I, that I was
    No prodigal.

TIMON                      I, that I am one now:
    Were all the wealth I have shut up in thee,
    I'ld give thee leave to hang it. Get thee gone.
    That the whole life of Athens were in this!
    Thus would I eat it.

    [Eating a root]

APEMANTUS    Here; I will mend thy feast.

    [Offering him a root]

TIMON    First mend my company, take away thyself.

APEMANTUS    So I shall mend mine own, by the lack of thine.

TIMON    'Tis not well mended so, it is but botch'd;
    if not, I would it were.

APEMANTUS    What wouldst thou have to Athens?

TIMON    Thee thither in a whirlwind. If thou wilt,
    Tell them there I have gold; look, so I have.

APEMANTUS    Here is no use for gold.

TIMON    The best and truest;
    For here it sleeps, and does no hired harm.

APEMANTUS    Where liest o' nights, Timon?

TIMON    Under that's above me.
    Where feed'st thou o' days, Apemantus?

APEMANTUS    Where my stomach finds meat; or, rather, where I eat
    it.

TIMON    Would poison were obedient and knew my mind!

APEMANTUS    Where wouldst thou send it?

TIMON    To sauce thy dishes.

APEMANTUS    The middle of humanity thou never knewest, but the
    extremity of both ends: when thou wast in thy gilt
    and thy perfume, they mocked thee for too much
    curiosity; in thy rags thou knowest none, but art
    despised for the contrary. There's a medlar for
    thee, eat it.

TIMON    On what I hate I feed not.

APEMANTUS    Dost hate a medlar?

TIMON    Ay, though it look like thee.

APEMANTUS    An thou hadst hated meddlers sooner, thou shouldst
    have loved thyself better now. What man didst thou
    ever know unthrift that was beloved after his means?

TIMON    Who, without those means thou talkest of, didst thou
    ever know beloved?

APEMANTUS    Myself.

TIMON    I understand thee; thou hadst some means to keep a
    dog.

APEMANTUS    What things in the world canst thou nearest compare
    to thy flatterers?

TIMON    Women nearest; but men, men are the things
    themselves. What wouldst thou do with the world,
    Apemantus, if it lay in thy power?

APEMANTUS    Give it the beasts, to be rid of the men.

TIMON    Wouldst thou have thyself fall in the confusion of
    men, and remain a beast with the beasts?

APEMANTUS    Ay, Timon.

TIMON    A beastly ambition, which the gods grant thee t'
    attain to! If thou wert the lion, the fox would
    beguile thee; if thou wert the lamb, the fox would
    eat three: if thou wert the fox, the lion would
    suspect thee, when peradventure thou wert accused by
    the ass: if thou wert the ass, thy dulness would
    torment thee, and still thou livedst but as a
    breakfast to the wolf: if thou wert the wolf, thy
    greediness would afflict thee, and oft thou shouldst
    hazard thy life for thy dinner: wert thou the
    unicorn, pride and wrath would confound thee and
    make thine own self the conquest of thy fury: wert
    thou a bear, thou wouldst be killed by the horse:
    wert thou a horse, thou wouldst be seized by the
    leopard: wert thou a leopard, thou wert german to
    the lion and the spots of thy kindred were jurors on
    thy life: all thy safety were remotion and thy
    defence absence. What beast couldst thou be, that
    were not subject to a beast? and what a beast art
    thou already, that seest not thy loss in
    transformation!

APEMANTUS    If thou couldst please me with speaking to me, thou
    mightst have hit upon it here: the commonwealth of
    Athens is become a forest of beasts.

TIMON    How has the ass broke the wall, that thou art out of the city?

APEMANTUS    Yonder comes a poet and a painter: the plague of
    company light upon thee! I will fear to catch it
    and give way: when I know not what else to do, I'll
    see thee again.

TIMON    When there is nothing living but thee, thou shalt be
    welcome. I had rather be a beggar's dog than Apemantus.

APEMANTUS    Thou art the cap of all the fools alive.

TIMON    Would thou wert clean enough to spit upon!

APEMANTUS    A plague on thee! thou art too bad to curse.

TIMON    All villains that do stand by thee are pure.

APEMANTUS    There is no leprosy but what thou speak'st.

TIMON    If I name thee.
    I'll beat thee, but I should infect my hands.

APEMANTUS    I would my tongue could rot them off!

TIMON    Away, thou issue of a mangy dog!
    Choler does kill me that thou art alive;
    I swound to see thee.

APEMANTUS    Would thou wouldst burst!

TIMON    Away,
    Thou tedious rogue! I am sorry I shall lose
    A stone by thee.

    [Throws a stone at him]

APEMANTUS                      Beast!

TIMON    Slave!

APEMANTUS    Toad!

TIMON    Rogue, rogue, rogue!
    I am sick of this false world, and will love nought
    But even the mere necessities upon 't.
    Then, Timon, presently prepare thy grave;
    Lie where the light foam the sea may beat
    Thy grave-stone daily: make thine epitaph,
    That death in me at others' lives may laugh.

    [To the gold]

    O thou sweet king-killer, and dear divorce
    'Twixt natural son and sire! thou bright defiler
    Of Hymen's purest bed! thou valiant Mars!
    Thou ever young, fresh, loved and delicate wooer,
    Whose blush doth thaw the consecrated snow
    That lies on Dian's lap! thou visible god,
    That solder'st close impossibilities,
    And makest them kiss! that speak'st with
    every tongue,
    To every purpose! O thou touch of hearts!
    Think, thy slave man rebels, and by thy virtue
    Set them into confounding odds, that beasts
    May have the world in empire!

APEMANTUS    Would 'twere so!
    But not till I am dead. I'll say thou'st gold:
    Thou wilt be throng'd to shortly.

TIMON    Throng'd to!

APEMANTUS    Ay.

TIMON    Thy back, I prithee.

APEMANTUS    Live, and love thy misery.

TIMON    Long live so, and so die.

    [Exit APEMANTUS]

            I am quit.
    Moe things like men! Eat, Timon, and abhor them.

    [Enter Banditti]

First Bandit    Where should he have this gold? It is some poor
    fragment, some slender sort of his remainder: the
    mere want of gold, and the falling-from of his
    friends, drove him into this melancholy.

Second Bandit    It is noised he hath a mass of treasure.

Third Bandit    Let us make the assay upon him: if he care not
    for't, he will supply us easily; if he covetously
    reserve it, how shall's get it?

Second Bandit    True; for he bears it not about him, 'tis hid.

First Bandit    Is not this he?

Banditti    Where?

Second Bandit    'Tis his description.

Third Bandit    He; I know him.

Banditti    Save thee, Timon.

TIMON    Now, thieves?

Banditti    Soldiers, not thieves.

TIMON    Both too; and women's sons.

Banditti    We are not thieves, but men that much do want.

TIMON    Your greatest want is, you want much of meat.
    Why should you want? Behold, the earth hath roots;
    Within this mile break forth a hundred springs;
    The oaks bear mast, the briers scarlet hips;
    The bounteous housewife, nature, on each bush
    Lays her full mess before you. Want! why want?

First Bandit    We cannot live on grass, on berries, water,
    As beasts and birds and fishes.

TIMON    Nor on the beasts themselves, the birds, and fishes;
    You must eat men. Yet thanks I must you con
    That you are thieves profess'd, that you work not
    In holier shapes: for there is boundless theft
    In limited professions. Rascal thieves,
    Here's gold. Go, suck the subtle blood o' the grape,
    Till the high fever seethe your blood to froth,
    And so 'scape hanging: trust not the physician;
    His antidotes are poison, and he slays
    Moe than you rob: take wealth and lives together;
    Do villany, do, since you protest to do't,
    Like workmen. I'll example you with thievery.
    The sun's a thief, and with his great attraction
    Robs the vast sea: the moon's an arrant thief,
    And her pale fire she snatches from the sun:
    The sea's a thief, whose liquid surge resolves
    The moon into salt tears: the earth's a thief,
    That feeds and breeds by a composture stolen
    From general excrement: each thing's a thief:
    The laws, your curb and whip, in their rough power
    Have uncheque'd theft. Love not yourselves: away,
    Rob one another. There's more gold. Cut throats:
    All that you meet are thieves: to Athens go,
    Break open shops; nothing can you steal,
    But thieves do lose it: steal no less for this
    I give you; and gold confound you howsoe'er! Amen.

Third Bandit    Has almost charmed me from my profession, by
    persuading me to it.

First Bandit    'Tis in the malice of mankind that he thus advises
    us; not to have us thrive in our mystery.

Second Bandit    I'll believe him as an enemy, and give over my trade.

First Bandit    Let us first see peace in Athens: there is no time
    so miserable but a man may be true.

    [Exeunt Banditti]

    [Enter FLAVIUS]

FLAVIUS    O you gods!
    Is yond despised and ruinous man my lord?
    Full of decay and failing? O monument
    And wonder of good deeds evilly bestow'd!
    What an alteration of honour
    Has desperate want made!
    What viler thing upon the earth than friends
    Who can bring noblest minds to basest ends!
    How rarely does it meet with this time's guise,
    When man was wish'd to love his enemies!
    Grant I may ever love, and rather woo
    Those that would mischief me than those that do!
    Has caught me in his eye: I will present
    My honest grief unto him; and, as my lord,
    Still serve him with my life. My dearest master!

TIMON    Away! what art thou?

FLAVIUS    Have you forgot me, sir?

TIMON    Why dost ask that? I have forgot all men;
    Then, if thou grant'st thou'rt a man, I have forgot thee.

FLAVIUS    An honest poor servant of yours.

TIMON    Then I know thee not:
    I never had honest man about me, I; all
    I kept were knaves, to serve in meat to villains.

FLAVIUS    The gods are witness,
    Ne'er did poor steward wear a truer grief
    For his undone lord than mine eyes for you.

TIMON    What, dost thou weep? Come nearer. Then I
    love thee,
    Because thou art a woman, and disclaim'st
    Flinty mankind; whose eyes do never give
    But thorough lust and laughter. Pity's sleeping:
    Strange times, that weep with laughing, not with weeping!

FLAVIUS    I beg of you to know me, good my lord,
    To accept my grief and whilst this poor wealth lasts
    To entertain me as your steward still.

TIMON    Had I a steward
    So true, so just, and now so comfortable?
    It almost turns my dangerous nature mild.
    Let me behold thy face. Surely, this man
    Was born of woman.
    Forgive my general and exceptless rashness,
    You perpetual-sober gods! I do proclaim
    One honest man--mistake me not--but one;
    No more, I pray,--and he's a steward.
    How fain would I have hated all mankind!
    And thou redeem'st thyself: but all, save thee,
    I fell with curses.
    Methinks thou art more honest now than wise;
    For, by oppressing and betraying me,
    Thou mightst have sooner got another service:
    For many so arrive at second masters,
    Upon their first lord's neck. But tell me true--
    For I must ever doubt, though ne'er so sure--
    Is not thy kindness subtle, covetous,
    If not a usuring kindness, and, as rich men deal gifts,
    Expecting in return twenty for one?

FLAVIUS    No, my most worthy master; in whose breast
    Doubt and suspect, alas, are placed too late:
    You should have fear'd false times when you did feast:
    Suspect still comes where an estate is least.
    That which I show, heaven knows, is merely love,
    Duty and zeal to your unmatched mind,
    Care of your food and living; and, believe it,
    My most honour'd lord,
    For any benefit that points to me,
    Either in hope or present, I'ld exchange
    For this one wish, that you had power and wealth
    To requite me, by making rich yourself.

TIMON    Look thee, 'tis so! Thou singly honest man,
    Here, take: the gods out of my misery
    Have sent thee treasure. Go, live rich and happy;
    But thus condition'd: thou shalt build from men;
    Hate all, curse all, show charity to none,
    But let the famish'd flesh slide from the bone,
    Ere thou relieve the beggar; give to dogs
    What thou deny'st to men; let prisons swallow 'em,
    Debts wither 'em to nothing; be men like
    blasted woods,
    And may diseases lick up their false bloods!
    And so farewell and thrive.

FLAVIUS    O, let me stay,
    And comfort you, my master.

TIMON    If thou hatest curses,
    Stay not; fly, whilst thou art blest and free:
    Ne'er see thou man, and let me ne'er see thee.

    [Exit FLAVIUS. TIMON retires to his cave]




    TIMON OF ATHENS


ACT V



SCENE I    The woods. Before Timon's cave.


    [Enter Poet and Painter; TIMON watching
    them from his cave]

Painter    As I took note of the place, it cannot be far where
    he abides.

Poet    What's to be thought of him? does the rumour hold
    for true, that he's so full of gold?

Painter    Certain: Alcibiades reports it; Phrynia and
    Timandra had gold of him: he likewise enriched poor
    straggling soldiers with great quantity: 'tis said
    he gave unto his steward a mighty sum.

Poet    Then this breaking of his has been but a try for his friends.

Painter    Nothing else: you shall see him a palm in Athens
    again, and flourish with the highest. Therefore
    'tis not amiss we tender our loves to him, in this
    supposed distress of his: it will show honestly in
    us; and is very likely to load our purposes with
    what they travail for, if it be a just true report
    that goes of his having.

Poet    What have you now to present unto him?

Painter    Nothing at this time but my visitation: only I will
    promise him an excellent piece.

Poet    I must serve him so too, tell him of an intent
    that's coming toward him.

Painter    Good as the best. Promising is the very air o' the
    time: it opens the eyes of expectation:
    performance is ever the duller for his act; and,
    but in the plainer and simpler kind of people, the
    deed of saying is quite out of use. To promise is
    most courtly and fashionable: performance is a kind
    of will or testament which argues a great sickness
    in his judgment that makes it.

    [TIMON comes from his cave, behind]

TIMON    [Aside]  Excellent workman! thou canst not paint a
    man so bad as is thyself.

Poet    I am thinking what I shall say I have provided for
    him: it must be a personating of himself; a satire
    against the softness of prosperity, with a discovery
    of the infinite flatteries that follow youth and opulency.

TIMON    [Aside]  Must thou needs stand for a villain in
    thine own work? wilt thou whip thine own faults in
    other men? Do so, I have gold for thee.

Poet    Nay, let's seek him:
    Then do we sin against our own estate,
    When we may profit meet, and come too late.

Painter    True;
    When the day serves, before black-corner'd night,
    Find what thou want'st by free and offer'd light. Come.

TIMON    [Aside]  I'll meet you at the turn. What a
    god's gold,
    That he is worshipp'd in a baser temple
    Than where swine feed!
    'Tis thou that rigg'st the bark and plough'st the foam,
    Settlest admired reverence in a slave:
    To thee be worship! and thy saints for aye
    Be crown'd with plagues that thee alone obey!
    Fit I meet them.

    [Coming forward]

Poet    Hail, worthy Timon!

Painter    Our late noble master!

TIMON    Have I once lived to see two honest men?

Poet    Sir,
    Having often of your open bounty tasted,
    Hearing you were retired, your friends fall'n off,
    Whose thankless natures--O abhorred spirits!--
    Not all the whips of heaven are large enough:
    What! to you,
    Whose star-like nobleness gave life and influence
    To their whole being! I am rapt and cannot cover
    The monstrous bulk of this ingratitude
    With any size of words.

TIMON    Let it go naked, men may see't the better:
    You that are honest, by being what you are,
    Make them best seen and known.

Painter    He and myself
    Have travail'd in the great shower of your gifts,
    And sweetly felt it.

TIMON    Ay, you are honest men.

Painter    We are hither come to offer you our service.

TIMON    Most honest men! Why, how shall I requite you?
    Can you eat roots, and drink cold water? no.

Both    What we can do, we'll do, to do you service.

TIMON    Ye're honest men: ye've heard that I have gold;
    I am sure you have: speak truth; ye're honest men.

Painter    So it is said, my noble lord; but therefore
    Came not my friend nor I.

TIMON    Good honest men! Thou draw'st a counterfeit
    Best in all Athens: thou'rt, indeed, the best;
    Thou counterfeit'st most lively.

Painter    So, so, my lord.

TIMON    E'en so, sir, as I say. And, for thy fiction,
    Why, thy verse swells with stuff so fine and smooth
    That thou art even natural in thine art.
    But, for all this, my honest-natured friends,
    I must needs say you have a little fault:
    Marry, 'tis not monstrous in you, neither wish I
    You take much pains to mend.

Both    Beseech your honour
    To make it known to us.

TIMON    You'll take it ill.

Both    Most thankfully, my lord.

TIMON    Will you, indeed?

Both    Doubt it not, worthy lord.

TIMON    There's never a one of you but trusts a knave,
    That mightily deceives you.

Both    Do we, my lord?

TIMON    Ay, and you hear him cog, see him dissemble,
    Know his gross patchery, love him, feed him,
    Keep in your bosom: yet remain assured
    That he's a made-up villain.

Painter    I know none such, my lord.

Poet    Nor I.

TIMON    Look you, I love you well; I'll give you gold,
    Rid me these villains from your companies:
    Hang them or stab them, drown them in a draught,
    Confound them by some course, and come to me,
    I'll give you gold enough.

Both    Name them, my lord, let's know them.

TIMON    You that way and you this, but two in company;
    Each man apart, all single and alone,
    Yet an arch-villain keeps him company.
    If where thou art two villains shall not be,
    Come not near him. If thou wouldst not reside
    But where one villain is, then him abandon.
    Hence, pack! there's gold; you came for gold, ye slaves:

    [To Painter]

    You have work'd for me; there's payment for you: hence!

    [To Poet]

    You are an alchemist; make gold of that.
    Out, rascal dogs!

    [Beats them out, and then retires to his cave]

    [Enter FLAVIUS and two Senators]

FLAVIUS    It is in vain that you would speak with Timon;
    For he is set so only to himself
    That nothing but himself which looks like man
    Is friendly with him.

First Senator    Bring us to his cave:
    It is our part and promise to the Athenians
    To speak with Timon.

Second Senator    At all times alike
    Men are not still the same: 'twas time and griefs
    That framed him thus: time, with his fairer hand,
    Offering the fortunes of his former days,
    The former man may make him. Bring us to him,
    And chance it as it may.

FLAVIUS    Here is his cave.
    Peace and content be here! Lord Timon! Timon!
    Look out, and speak to friends: the Athenians,
    By two of their most reverend senate, greet thee:
    Speak to them, noble Timon.

    [TIMON comes from his cave]

TIMON    Thou sun, that comfort'st, burn! Speak, and
    be hang'd:
    For each true word, a blister! and each false
    Be as cauterizing to the root o' the tongue,
    Consuming it with speaking!

First Senator    Worthy Timon,--

TIMON    Of none but such as you, and you of Timon.

First Senator    The senators of Athens greet thee, Timon.

TIMON    I thank them; and would send them back the plague,
    Could I but catch it for them.

First Senator    O, forget
    What we are sorry for ourselves in thee.
    The senators with one consent of love
    Entreat thee back to Athens; who have thought
    On special dignities, which vacant lie
    For thy best use and wearing.

Second Senator    They confess
    Toward thee forgetfulness too general, gross:
    Which now the public body, which doth seldom
    Play the recanter, feeling in itself
    A lack of Timon's aid, hath sense withal
    Of its own fail, restraining aid to Timon;
    And send forth us, to make their sorrow'd render,
    Together with a recompense more fruitful
    Than their offence can weigh down by the dram;
    Ay, even such heaps and sums of love and wealth
    As shall to thee blot out what wrongs were theirs
    And write in thee the figures of their love,
    Ever to read them thine.

TIMON    You witch me in it;
    Surprise me to the very brink of tears:
    Lend me a fool's heart and a woman's eyes,
    And I'll beweep these comforts, worthy senators.

First Senator    Therefore, so please thee to return with us
    And of our Athens, thine and ours, to take
    The captainship, thou shalt be met with thanks,
    Allow'd with absolute power and thy good name
    Live with authority: so soon we shall drive back
    Of Alcibiades the approaches wild,
    Who, like a boar too savage, doth root up
    His country's peace.

Second Senator    And shakes his threatening sword
    Against the walls of Athens.

First Senator    Therefore, Timon,--

TIMON    Well, sir, I will; therefore, I will, sir; thus:
    If Alcibiades kill my countrymen,
    Let Alcibiades know this of Timon,
    That Timon cares not. But if be sack fair Athens,
    And take our goodly aged men by the beards,
    Giving our holy virgins to the stain
    Of contumelious, beastly, mad-brain'd war,
    Then let him know, and tell him Timon speaks it,
    In pity of our aged and our youth,
    I cannot choose but tell him, that I care not,
    And let him take't at worst; for their knives care not,
    While you have throats to answer: for myself,
    There's not a whittle in the unruly camp
    But I do prize it at my love before
    The reverend'st throat in Athens. So I leave you
    To the protection of the prosperous gods,
    As thieves to keepers.

FLAVIUS    Stay not, all's in vain.

TIMON    Why, I was writing of my epitaph;
    it will be seen to-morrow: my long sickness
    Of health and living now begins to mend,
    And nothing brings me all things. Go, live still;
    Be Alcibiades your plague, you his,
    And last so long enough!

First Senator    We speak in vain.

TIMON    But yet I love my country, and am not
    One that rejoices in the common wreck,
    As common bruit doth put it.

First Senator    That's well spoke.

TIMON    Commend me to my loving countrymen,--

First Senator    These words become your lips as they pass
    thorough them.

Second Senator    And enter in our ears like great triumphers
    In their applauding gates.

TIMON    Commend me to them,
    And tell them that, to ease them of their griefs,
    Their fears of hostile strokes, their aches, losses,
    Their pangs of love, with other incident throes
    That nature's fragile vessel doth sustain
    In life's uncertain voyage, I will some kindness do them:
    I'll teach them to prevent wild Alcibiades' wrath.

First Senator    I like this well; he will return again.

TIMON    I have a tree, which grows here in my close,
    That mine own use invites me to cut down,
    And shortly must I fell it: tell my friends,
    Tell Athens, in the sequence of degree
    From high to low throughout, that whoso please
    To stop affliction, let him take his haste,
    Come hither, ere my tree hath felt the axe,
    And hang himself. I pray you, do my greeting.

FLAVIUS    Trouble him no further; thus you still shall find him.

TIMON    Come not to me again: but say to Athens,
    Timon hath made his everlasting mansion
    Upon the beached verge of the salt flood;
    Who once a day with his embossed froth
    The turbulent surge shall cover: thither come,
    And let my grave-stone be your oracle.
    Lips, let sour words go by and language end:
    What is amiss plague and infection mend!
    Graves only be men's works and death their gain!
    Sun, hide thy beams! Timon hath done his reign.

    [Retires to his cave]

First Senator    His discontents are unremoveably
    Coupled to nature.

Second Senator    Our hope in him is dead: let us return,
    And strain what other means is left unto us
    In our dear peril.

First Senator                      It requires swift foot.

    [Exeunt]




    TIMON OF ATHENS


ACT V



SCENE II    Before the walls of Athens.


    [Enter two Senators and a Messenger]

First Senator    Thou hast painfully discover'd: are his files
    As full as thy report?

Messenger    have spoke the least:
    Besides, his expedition promises
    Present approach.

Second Senator    We stand much hazard, if they bring not Timon.

Messenger    I met a courier, one mine ancient friend;
    Whom, though in general part we were opposed,
    Yet our old love made a particular force,
    And made us speak like friends: this man was riding
    From Alcibiades to Timon's cave,
    With letters of entreaty, which imported
    His fellowship i' the cause against your city,
    In part for his sake moved.

First Senator    Here come our brothers.

    [Enter the Senators from TIMON]

Third Senator    No talk of Timon, nothing of him expect.
    The enemies' drum is heard, and fearful scouring
    Doth choke the air with dust: in, and prepare:
    Ours is the fall, I fear; our foes the snare.

    [Exeunt]




    TIMON OF ATHENS


ACT V



SCENE III    The woods. Timon's cave, and a rude tomb seen.


    [Enter a Soldier, seeking TIMON]

Soldier    By all description this should be the place.
    Who's here? speak, ho! No answer! What is this?
    Timon is dead, who hath outstretch'd his span:
    Some beast rear'd this; there does not live a man.
    Dead, sure; and this his grave. What's on this tomb
    I cannot read; the character I'll take with wax:
    Our captain hath in every figure skill,
    An aged interpreter, though young in days:
    Before proud Athens he's set down by this,
    Whose fall the mark of his ambition is.

    [Exit]




    TIMON OF ATHENS


ACT V



SCENE IV    Before the walls of Athens.


    [Trumpets sound. Enter ALCIBIADES with his powers]

ALCIBIADES    Sound to this coward and lascivious town
    Our terrible approach.

    [A parley sounded]

    [Enter Senators on the walls]

    Till now you have gone on and fill'd the time
    With all licentious measure, making your wills
    The scope of justice; till now myself and such
    As slept within the shadow of your power
    Have wander'd with our traversed arms and breathed
    Our sufferance vainly: now the time is flush,
    When crouching marrow in the bearer strong
    Cries of itself 'No more:' now breathless wrong
    Shall sit and pant in your great chairs of ease,
    And pursy insolence shall break his wind
    With fear and horrid flight.

First Senator    Noble and young,
    When thy first griefs were but a mere conceit,
    Ere thou hadst power or we had cause of fear,
    We sent to thee, to give thy rages balm,
    To wipe out our ingratitude with loves
    Above their quantity.

Second Senator    So did we woo
    Transformed Timon to our city's love
    By humble message and by promised means:
    We were not all unkind, nor all deserve
    The common stroke of war.

First Senator    These walls of ours
    Were not erected by their hands from whom
    You have received your griefs; nor are they such
    That these great towers, trophies and schools
    should fall
    For private faults in them.

Second Senator    Nor are they living
    Who were the motives that you first went out;
    Shame that they wanted cunning, in excess
    Hath broke their hearts. March, noble lord,
    Into our city with thy banners spread:
    By decimation, and a tithed death--
    If thy revenges hunger for that food
    Which nature loathes--take thou the destined tenth,
    And by the hazard of the spotted die
    Let die the spotted.

First Senator    All have not offended;
    For those that were, it is not square to take
    On those that are, revenges: crimes, like lands,
    Are not inherited. Then, dear countryman,
    Bring in thy ranks, but leave without thy rage:
    Spare thy Athenian cradle and those kin
    Which in the bluster of thy wrath must fall
    With those that have offended: like a shepherd,
    Approach the fold and cull the infected forth,
    But kill not all together.

Second Senator    What thou wilt,
    Thou rather shalt enforce it with thy smile
    Than hew to't with thy sword.

First Senator     Set but thy foot
    Against our rampired gates, and they shall ope;
    So thou wilt send thy gentle heart before,
    To say thou'lt enter friendly.

Second Senator    Throw thy glove,
    Or any token of thine honour else,
    That thou wilt use the wars as thy redress
    And not as our confusion, all thy powers
    Shall make their harbour in our town, till we
    Have seal'd thy full desire.

ALCIBIADES    Then there's my glove;
    Descend, and open your uncharged ports:
    Those enemies of Timon's and mine own
    Whom you yourselves shall set out for reproof
    Fall and no more: and, to atone your fears
    With my more noble meaning, not a man
    Shall pass his quarter, or offend the stream
    Of regular justice in your city's bounds,
    But shall be render'd to your public laws
    At heaviest answer.

Both    'Tis most nobly spoken.

ALCIBIADES    Descend, and keep your words.

    [The Senators descend, and open the gates]

    [Enter Soldier]

Soldier    My noble general, Timon is dead;
    Entomb'd upon the very hem o' the sea;
    And on his grave-stone this insculpture, which
    With wax I brought away, whose soft impression
    Interprets for my poor ignorance.

ALCIBIADES    [Reads the epitaph]  'Here lies a
    wretched corse, of wretched soul bereft:
    Seek not my name: a plague consume you wicked
    caitiffs left!
    Here lie I, Timon; who, alive, all living men did hate:
    Pass by and curse thy fill, but pass and stay
    not here thy gait.'
    These well express in thee thy latter spirits:
    Though thou abhorr'dst in us our human griefs,
    Scorn'dst our brain's flow and those our
    droplets which
    From niggard nature fall, yet rich conceit
    Taught thee to make vast Neptune weep for aye
    On thy low grave, on faults forgiven. Dead
    Is noble Timon: of whose memory
    Hereafter more. Bring me into your city,
    And I will use the olive with my sword,
    Make war breed peace, make peace stint war, make each
    Prescribe to other as each other's leech.
    Let our drums strike.

    [Exeunt]